Come what may and love it!

10 weeks old

2012-01-23T18:23:00.005-07:00

Well, here we are at 10 weeks (or 38 gestational weeks) and for those of you who are wondering-- yes, they are still in the hospital! I am pretty sure they love the nurses so much that they are trying to stay as long as possible. We have some amazing "primary" nurses and we are really going to miss them, as will the girls, I am sure. Both girls had a significant bradycardia on Jan 20th so we are doing the 5 day count down from there. So hopefully this will be the week that they are discharged! Here's how our week went:

Adalyn started the week out with a feeding tube but started eating so well that they took it out. She is now eating on demand instead of being fed every 3 hours. Alivia was already eating on demand. They usually go 3-4 hours before waking up to be fed. Her labs came back normal so they don't need to worry about her liver enzymes anymore. Other than that, she had a pretty low-key week. She spends her days eating, sleeping and most importantly, being snuggled by her parents or by the nurses.

Alivia had a pretty similar week to Adalyn. She tends to have more bradies than her sister but luckily they don't count if they are quick dips or during feeds. I think she was just waiting for her sister to catch up so she didn't have to go home alone. She is eating like a champ and gaining weight. Both girls are just above 7 pounds now! She likes to be snuggled all the time! She cries when she is put down but she calms down when she swings in her swing. The girls might be spoiled with their snuggles but after all they've been through I think they deserve it. Good thing grandma will be coming up as soon as they are home because she can't wait to snuggle them all day.

I had to take a pic of the beautiful flowers Aden got me for our Anniversary this week. We went on our "last date without kids" Saturday night-- dinner and a movie. It may be a while before we can get out and do that again!

Will this be the week they actually come home? Stay tuned.....

Happy Anniversary!

2012-01-17T07:54:00.002-07:00

3 years ago today I married my dream boat in this beautiful place. So glad to be married to this man forever! Happy Anniversary, my love!

9 weeks old

2012-01-16T18:55:00.011-07:00

The girlies are 9 weeks old today (or 37 gestational weeks). We are getting closer to bringing them home! Maybe by the end of this week. They have to go 5 days without a bradycardia (when their heart rate suddenly drops). They both had one on the 14th so we are counting 5 days from that point. The girls both got their RSV immunization this week as well as a few other immunizations. The girls are both above 6 lbs now.

Adalyn stayed off the nasal prongs. She has been doing great without extra oxygen. She has also been working on her feeds. She is getting better at eating her whole bottle and is needing the feeding tube less. When she can get rid of the feeding tube she will be ready to come home.

Alivia has also done a great job without her nasal prongs. She had her NG (feeding tube) taken out this week because she is eating so well. She would have come home yesterday but she has had a few bradycardias which starts the 5 days over again. Now it is looking like later this week. We think she just wanted to be with her sister until they are both ready to come home.

Some of the other babies in the NICU got sick with serratia (the infection Adalyn had in December) so they tested all the babies for it. Surprisingly Alivia tested positive for it. She doesn't have any symptoms so she doesn't need to be treated with antibiotics.

They moved all 6 babies with serratia into the same area of the NICU in order to contain the spread of it. Because they are both positive for serratia, they are both on isolation. We now don't need to worry about keeping them apart. We were able to hold the girls together for the first time.

Hopefully the girls will both be home for next week's update!

8 weeks old

2012-01-09T22:44:00.007-07:00

The babies are another week older. They are 8 weeks old (or 36 gestational weeks). They had another incredible week.

Adalyn went to nasal prongs again and stayed on them this time. Then today she went off her prongs altogether! Hopefully she will be able to keep them off. She is working on her bottle feeding but still needs about 1/2 her feed in the feeding tube. She is getting closer to taking her full bottle though. Adalyn's total biliruben number is high which means her bile is backing up a little bit (this is about all I know). Her doctor thought it could be caused by a small duct near her gall bladder but her ultrasound came back normal. They are not sure what is causing this, but they will repeat the blood work tomorrow to see if it has resolved itself.

Mid-week they told me the girls were going to be transferred to Rockeyview hospital. My heart sank because we really love the amazing nurses at Foothills. Fortunately the doctor at Rockeyview (who does rotations at Foothills) did not want to move Adalyn while she is on isolation. So I think we'll be staying put!

Alivia stayed on her prongs all week and has done really well. Yesterday afternoon they took her prongs off and she has done pretty well. She had 3 brady cardias this morning (when her heart rate drops) so there could be a chance that she would go back on the prongs if this continues. She is taking full bottles for most of her feeds. The doctor told me that the plan is/was to send Alivia home at the end of this week. However, when a baby has a brady she then has to stay for 5 more days. She also needs to eat full bottles with no feeding tube for 48 hours which she isn't quite doing yet. But we are getting very close to having her come home. I am sure Adalyn won't be too far behind her.

Last night they moved Adalyn right next to Alivia... well there is a counter between them. Aden and I got them out of their beds and brought them close together. This was their first real look of each other. It was so weird having them right next to each other. I feel like I have my world with Alivia and my world with Adalyn so when they were side by side it hit me that I actually have 2 babies who will be able to be together in a short amount of time. The girls couldn't touch because of isolation but I wanted to have them hold hands. Oh, and in the bottom pic, Alivia's nostrils are big because she just had her O2 tubes taken out not long before that but they will go back to normal soon. Her nose doesn't actually look like that.

Aden and I are scrambling to get everything ready at home. These little girlies are going to be here before we know it!!

7 weeks old

2012-01-02T13:41:00.008-07:00

The little princesses are 7 weeks old today (or 35 gestational weeks). I feel like we are starting on the home stretch. About 4 more weeks and they should be coming home. They had another great week.

Adalyn went to nasal prongs but was only on them for a day before she went back to cpap. It was nice to see her little face and hair again. Other than that, she had a pretty uneventful week. She still loves to snuggle and seems to enjoy visits from us. A nurse one night fed her about 1/2 her feed from a bottle but she wasn't supposed to because Adalyn is still on her cpap and it can cause choking. Luckily she did well with the bottle.

Alivia went to nasal prongs for the 6th time.... and she stayed on them! She is doing really well on the prongs. With so few cords it is hard to not steal her and take her home! She also got a bath this week. At first she cried when she was getting put in the little tub but then she calmed right down and really enjoyed herself. It looked like she was having a relaxing day at the spa. She reached another milestone this week. Without the cpap she started bottle feeding. They started slow but this morning she took her full feed in a bottle. Good girl! We love looking at her chubby little cheeks and snuggling her, but when she is done snuggling she squirms and fusses until you put her back in bed.

Love these girls!

6 weeks old

2011-12-26T14:37:00.016-07:00

The babies are now 6 weeks old (or 34 gestational weeks). Have we really been doing this for 6 weeks?? Time has gone really quickly in some regards. The girls had another fantastic week. Here's how it went:

Adalyn went back on cpap 24 hours after being on the oxygen prongs. She didn't need a blood transfusion after all. She has been pretty stable on her oxygen and has been on 21% on her cpap most of the time now (we all breathe 21% oxygen so this is the goal). They are going to try her on prongs again today so hopefully she can be off the cpap for good. She has been getting "cpap belly" this week which is caused by air from the cpap blowing into her stomach. It is big and probably not very comfortable, but is nothing serious. It will go away when her cpap is taken off. She wasn't tolerating the fortifier they were adding to her milk so they switched to another one. They do their best to fatten these babies up! Both girls are just over 5 pounds now! Both babies also got moved to an isolette with the top off. Apparently the beds they were in before can cause pneumonia in babies on cpap because the tubing has to go up and over the side, causing the water to pool in the tubing. Here are some pics of our sweet little Adalyn.

The girls got some cute outfits this week in the mail. Above is an outfit from my mom and below is an outfit from my sister, Nikki. Thank you!

Alivia had a great week too. She is still on cpap and they didn't even try to switch her to prongs this week. They do something called a histogram that tracks their oxygen levels. If the levels aren't high enough on the cpap then they won't switch them to oxygen prongs. They are going to do a histogram on Wednesday and then attempt the prongs on Thursday (6th attempt). That will be a full 2 weeks from the last attempt. Hopefully she'll be ready this time! Here are some pics of our sweet Alivia.

The babies get an assessment every 6 hours by the nurse. They listen to their heart and feel their pulses. They also switch the little mask on the cpap tubing so as not to cause damage to their little noses. They switch between a nose mask and cpap prongs. They are also supposed to take their hats off and give them a little head massage (pic above). It's nice to catch a little glimpse of them without everything on their head.

Here's Alivia's outfit from grandma (my mom).

And this is the outfit from Aunt Nikki.

Grandpa, I am ready to go to Disneyland and ride on the roller coasters!

Christmas in the NICU.

This is our girls' first Christmas.... too bad they were in the hospital for it. But we decided to wait until they come home to have Christmas. We are leaving the tree up and all their presents (and our presents) are still wrapped under the tree. The tree in the pic below is the one at the NICU.

On Christmas morning the nurses told us that Santa had come. The girls got beautiful hand knitted blankets and hats. There was a notebook with each blanket. A member of a knitting group started a portion of the blanket, wrote a passage in the notebook and then sent it to another person who did a portion of it... and so on. There are a few people all over Canada who worked on these blankets and we get to read a special note from each of them in the notebook.

The NICU also gave the girls some gifts on Friday. They got the pink outfits in the pic above, as well as the red outfits and red blankets in the pics below. Grandma also sent 2 red Christmas outfits. We couldn't put them on because they pull over their heads and the cpap doesn't allow for that.

The 3 pics above are Alivia and the next 3 are Adalyn.

This is the ornament we bought for their first Christmas. It already had "Two peas in a pod" written on it which we liked because the area in the NICU where the girls are is called a "pod." There are 4 areas in the NICU- A pod, B pod, C pod and D pod. Ironically our girls are in A pod. So two peas in 'a pod' has a double meaning.

I just want to say thanks again to everyone for their prayers and support. The girls are doing so well and we are so grateful for that.

Merry Christmas everyone!

5 weeks old

2011-12-19T09:09:00.016-07:00

The girls are 5 weeks old today (or 33 gestational weeks). They both had a fantastic week! Here's how it went:

Alivia was trialed on nasal prongs AGAIN and was back on the cpap 3 hours later. We again insisted they wait another 5-7 days until they try again so it looks like they'll try on Wednesday. They are feeding her with a pump so the feed is spread over a 1/2 hour. This helps her tummy to not be full all at once (which pushes on her lungs and makes her oxygen levels drop quickly). Other than that, she has been as bright eyed as ever. She is very even tempered and loves to just look around at everything.

Adalyn had a much better week! She is back to her normal self. She is back up to her full feeds and she is getting bigger. Both babies are over 4 pounds now. They add fortifiers to their milk so they are gaining quite a bit of weight. Last night Adalyn upgraded to a big girl bed, just like her sister. They also switched her to nasal prongs today. I was shocked because her oxygen levels are higher and they usually wait until they have been on 21% with no problems. I am not sure how long it will last but it is nice seeing her without the cpap. She got a blood transfusion last week and she might need another one in the next few days because her red blood cell count is low. She loves to snuggle and I hold her for 2 hours at a time sometimes. She also isn't as "wild" when she is swaddled. I think she just didn't like her limbs hanging out and so she was constantly flailing. She is still on isolation and it looks like she will stay on it for the whole time she is in the hospital. But every cloud has a silver lining-- if she stays on isolation the entire time then she most likely will stay at Foothills Hospital and won't be transferred to another hospital. They warned us at the beginning that once the babies were older and healthy enough they would be transferred to another hospital to free up room for new preemies needing higher care. Foothills is only 10 minutes from our house but the other 2 hospitals are not as close. We would be so happy if they stayed there. They will also keep Alivia there if Adalyn is staying the whole time. They re-tested Adalyn and her infection is completely gone now... but just as a precaution they will keep her on isolation so she doesn't infect the other babies.

Even though I don't plan on dressing the girls in matching clothes, who can resist a matching outfit now and again? Can you tell who is who in the pics below?

Adalyn is the first pic and Alivia is the second. Love these girls! Here's to another great week!

4 weeks old

2011-12-12T22:51:00.008-07:00

Wow, the girls are already 4 weeks old! They will be 1 month old on Dec 14 (wednesday). Here's how their week went:

Alivia had a roller coaster of a week with her cpap. The doctors put her on oxygen prongs at the beginning of the week but she was back on cpap less than 24 hours later. A couple days went by and they decided to try it out again. I was not very happy. That was their 4th attempt in less than 2 weeks. When she is on the oxygen prongs her oxygen levels drop and they have to keep turning the oxygen up, which is not something they like to do. She keeps dropping throughout the day. When she is on cpap her oxygen levels are stable. On the 4th time she was on prongs, Aden and I stayed at the hospital one evening until 1am because her levels were dropping and we wanted to talk to the doctor to get her back on cpap. The doctor said she was doing fine. We weren't convinced. Sure enough, she was back on cpap 12 hours later. Aden talked to the doctor again and insisted that they not try again unless they have waited 5-7 days in between. We also wondered if she was getting sick since her sister was sick (more on that later). She was coughing a little and wasn't herself. Luckily when she went back on cpap she seemed to do better. She's been very alert this week and the nurses are having fun dressing her in little Christmas clothes. She got too hot in her incubator so she upgraded to a "big girl bed" which doesn't have a top on it. She is getting bigger! She is now 3 lbs 14 oz.

I can't get enough of this pic (above). I just want to eat her up!!

We got some video of Alivia tonight:

Adalyn had a really rough week. She started the week right next to her sister and I was excited to have them so close together. Unfortunately she got sick and had to be moved to a different area of the NICU because she went from a level 2 to a level 3 (because she was intubated and needed more care). She was really lethargic and had a lot of mucus secretions coming out of her mouth. Her oxygen levels kept dropping really low and they finally had to intubate her. They took blood samples and secretion samples and started her on antibiotics until the labs came back 48 hours later. At first they thought she had pneumonia. She didn't move much for a couple days. When I would talk to her, she would try to open her eyes to look at me. It broke my heart. On Wednesday Adalyn "crashed" and turned blue-- even with the ventilator breathing for her. They ripped out the tube in case it was blocked (which it wasn't) and put another one in. Babies are sedated when they are intubated but there wasn't time so she had to have it done without sedation. Poor girl. Finally the labs came back and we found out she has "Serratia" which is a lung infection. It is also very contagious among preemies so she was put on "isolation" which means we have to wear a gown over our clothes and gloves when we visit her. We have to visit Alivia first and then Adalyn and then we have to leave. I wasn't able to hold her for about a week while she was sick. Once the antibiotics started kicking in (they gave her specific ones for serratia) she became very fiesty. I think she is starting to make a name for herself in the NICU. I heard one of the nurses telling her replacement at shift change, "She is kind of wild." When I visit her each day I ask the nurse how she is doing and they usually say, "She is very active and strong." She keeps pulling her feeding tube out and tried multiple times to pull her intubation tube out. Luckily she was doing so well by Saturday that she was able to be extubated and is now back on cpap. She is doing really well on cpap, even better than before. They stopped her feeds for a couple days and she is slowly increasing again. Now that she is feeling better she likes to hold my hand. She has a very strong grip. We are also able to hold her again and she does really well with that. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get pictures of her this week because of how sick she was and because of isolation. We are looking forward to having a huge photo shoot soon so she can catch up to all her sister's photos. She is also getting bigger and now weighs 3 lbs, 15 oz.

Hopefully this coming week goes a lot better than last week!

3 weeks old

2011-12-05T08:51:00.005-07:00

Just when I think I can't handle the stress any longer, somehow another week passes. The babies are 3 weeks old today (or 31 gestational weeks). Here's how they did this week:

Alivia has had a pretty good week. Two times this week they switched her to nasal prongs because she was on room air on her cpap. But for some reason, once she is on the prongs she starts needing more oxygen so they have to switch her back to the cpap. I think she likes the light feeling of her head with the cpap off because she kept turning her head and laying on her face. Silly baby. The cpap makes her face really swollen so any pics we got with her oxygen on makes her eyes look swollen. They've been able to increase her feeds so she got her IV out which was giving her additional nutrients. They did an echocardiogram and the valve in her heart is now closed!

Alivia is a silly little monkey. She loves to lay in her incubator with her eyes open. I hate leaving when she is looking around and tell her, "Close your eyes and go to sleep so mommy can leave." She loves laying on her back with her legs up in the air. She doesn't really like her tummy... probably because then she can't look around. She loves to snuggle but after about an hour and 15 minutes she is definitely done. She starts to pull away and get really restless. The nurse said I might be able to give her a bath this week.

Adalyn has had a harder week. Her cpap oxygen levels are swinging all over the place. The goal is to get the percent of oxygen to 21 but the lowest she can get to is 25, the highest is in the upper 30s. Her alarms go off all day long and they have to keep adjusting the numbers. It does a number on my nerves. They did an xray of her lungs and found some fluid so they decided to give her a round of lasix. Her body seemed to handle it pretty well. She has been doing really well on her feeds but wasn't gaining weight so they increased the supplements in her milk. Her IV was taken out a while ago. She has now gained some more weight... I think she is around 3 lbs 8 oz. Yesterday she started to struggle. Her oxygen dropped off about 10 times during the day so the doctors think there could be some sort of infection. They did a lumbar puncture, some blood work and took a urine sample. The LP fluid came back negative for meningitis but the results from the blood work will take 48 hours to come back. They put in an IV and started her on antibiotics. We are hoping and praying for a better week for her.

Adalyn loves, loves, loves to be on her belly. She gets upset when she is on her back. She can be on her stomach for another 4 weeks and then they'll have to wean her onto her back. She is very sensitive to touch and sound. The nurses think it is because she isn't feeling well. Her eyelids flutter when I talk to her so I know she recognizes my voice. Yesterday Aden was visiting with Alivia and he looked over to Adalyn's incubator. Her eyes were open and she was looking at Aden and she had her arm outstretched towards him. He said he felt so bad and hurried over to hold her hand.

The big excitement of the week is that the girls are now in the same area of the NICU. They moved Adalyn right across from Alivia. Then by the next day they had moved Adalyn right next to Alivia. Apparently the NICU is above capacity so some babies have to double up in some areas. We are ok with that because the girls' incubators are about a foot apart. There was another baby moved to the space across from the girls. He is 9 1/2 pounds and looks HUGE. I call him the man child. I thought my girls looked big compared to some of the tiny preemies but the man child makes our babies look TINY.

My sister kept telling us to get a stuffed animal for the babies. We got some pink bears. Then she kept telling us to get pictures of the bears with the babies. We can't put anything in the incubators so we took a picture with the bears on top.

I know I say this every blog post but thank you for your prayers. Pray for Adalyn this week!

2 weeks old

2011-11-28T22:51:00.006-07:00

I can't believe it has already been two weeks since the babies were born. Then again, it seems like forever ago that I was having the babies. Sometimes it feels like they have been in the NICU for a very long time, but maybe it's because I spend most of the day there.

Here's how the second week went:

Alivia started out the week really well. They started feeding her milk again. By Thursday the doctors were concerned about the valve in/near her heart being opened. They wanted to treat it with Ibuprofen. The started her on it and she wasn't having large amounts of urine which was a concern because Ibuprofen can damage the kidneys, among other things. They had to wait a little while before giving the second dose. I was very apprehensive and told the nurse I didn't want them to give her the 3rd dose. The Dr's re-evaluated her on Sunday and determined that she didn't need the 3rd dose because her murmur seemed to be gone, indicating the valve had closed. Also, she hasn't had a bowel movement in days even after plenty of suppositories (TMI, I know). I worry about her bowels and hope that everything is working properly. They have started to slowly increase the amount in her feeds. She came off her cpap today but it might be short lived as her levels kept dropping today and they had to keep turning her oxygen up. She might be back on the cpap tomorrow.

She is such an alert little baby. She very often has her eyes open. She loves to snuggle and we are able to hold her everyday for long periods of time. She also likes it when I hold her hands and it seems to calm her down when she isn't very happy (usually during her daily assessments).

Adalyn is doing really well in the food department. She has really increased the amount of milk with her feeds. She has now passed her birth weight. She is a lot more sensitive than her sister and does not tolerate being handled very well (especially during her daily assessments). Sometimes I just sit by her incubator because she doesn't want to be touched or talked to. It stresses her out and then her oxygen levels drop and they have to keep turning up her cpap. The numbers are constantly going up and down all day long, but she tends to need more oxygen. I worry there could be problems with her lungs but a nurse today said it is too early to diagnose that and it would take time to see what will happen (but that it could be a possibility). She also doesn't tolerate being held so I either don't hold her or she only makes it about 10 minutes. We don't have a lot of pictures of her from this past week because she is usually covered up, on her tummy and sleeping with the lights dimmed.

We still are very grateful for prayers offered in their behalf. They are doing great but still have long road ahead of them. We feel very blessed to have them in our family and hope that everything will work out in the end.

The 1st few days in NICU

2011-11-20T11:47:00.009-07:00

I can't believe it has almost been a week since I had our little princesses. The first week in the NICU has been stressful but our little girls have been fighters and have been doing well. Here's how our week has gone:

After my c-section on Monday I was feeling pretty sick. Aden kept popping over to the NICU to see the babies. I tried to go see them but I got sick and had to return to my room. I didn't see Alivia until the next day. Over the next few days I was hurting quite a bit but by Thursday morning I was ready to go home. While in the hospital, I would go see the babies throughout the day. Luckily Aden had a week off work. Aden couldn't stay away from them. He admitted early on that he is already wrapped around their little fingers. It is funny because when I was pregnant he would always say, "When these babies come I hope you don't pay attention to them only." He was worried about being neglected. Now that they are here I realize I should have been the one worried about it. He can't get enough of his little girls.

Alivia has been doing pretty well. She was intubated at first but moved quickly to a c-pap. She wasn't handling milk very well so they took her off breast milk and she has just been on fluids since then. That makes me feel so bad! The doctors heard a small heart murmur which indicates the valve in her heart hasn't closed yet but after getting an echocardiogram they decided to give it some time. She wasn't having bad enough symptoms for them to give her meds. We were very grateful for that. At first we couldn't think of a middle name for Alivia. We had to decide before I was discharged and we had been talking about it for days. After all the outpouring of love and prayers for our babies we decided Faith would be her middle name.

She loves to open her big eyes and look at us.

I have been able to hold Alivia a few times. She loves to snuggle. One time she had her eyes open and was looking around. Aden snapped a few pics. I can just hear her thinking in the pic below, "Yep, I've got my mommy."

Adalyn has had a little bit of a harder week. She has been intubated until yesterday morning when she was finally transferred to a c-pap. Her valve was not closed and fluid was backing up into her lungs... they called it a white out. She has also had a lot of fluid coming back out of her tubes and the Dr's didn't know if she had an infection of some sort so they did blood work and a spinal tap. Poor baby. Luckily everything came back negative. She was having a little bit of bleeding coming from her tummy so they were worried about starting her on Ibuprofen which can close the valve but which can also cause more bleeding in the tummy. If her tummy bled too much it could take blood from the intestines, causing some serious problems. We were both a wreck when they started her on the Ibuprofen on Thursday. They also were giving her some pain/sedation medication because she was in some pain. Luckily, the Ibuprofen didn't irritate her tummy and the bleeding stopped. The symptoms of PDA (the heart valve issue) started going away and she started improving. She had her last round yesterday. She also is only on fluids. They put her under some lights I think on Friday to improve her bilirubin levels. I got to hold her yesterday evening but I was really nervous because her c-pap levels kept dropping. I feel safer with her in her incubator.

The NICU at Foothills hospital is one of the best. Each baby has their own "pod" like the picture below. There is a nurse looking after each baby around the clock. Our babies are always in their incubators unless I am holding them. There are small circular doors in the sides where you can put your hands in.

We feel so blessed to have these little girls in our family. We feel that God is watching out for them. Their weight is above average for their age so we know this has been a real blessing. I can't say thank you enough for all the prayers offered in their behalf!

The day that changed our lives

2011-11-18T17:57:00.017-07:00

I never thought I would write the birth story of our little girls on our blog. But I have had a lot of people asking what happened and why I had an emergency c-section. I also want to document their birth since it was not what I was expecting.

On Wednesday, November 9th I got up in the early morning to use the bathroom. This was a regular occurrence... only this time I was bleeding. I woke Aden up and told him we needed to go to the hospital. My mom and aunt were visiting so I woke up my mom before leaving.

At the hospital they checked me out and did an ultra sound. They thought maybe the bleeding was coming from my cervix, which had dilated 2 weeks before to 1-2cm. I was admitted to the hospital and settled in for the long haul. I was hoping to be able to carry the babies for a few more weeks.

On Thursday, November 10th I started cramping and had more bleeding. They transferred me upstairs so I could be monitored more closely. I started having contractions and was given morphine. An hour after the morphine everything settled down and I was sent back downstairs. I spent the next few days with minor bleeding and cramping.

On Sunday, November 13th I thought maybe things were settling down. I told Aden maybe they would let me go home if I went enough days without fresh bleeding.

At 1am on Monday, November 14th I got up to use the bathroom. This time there was more bleeding than usual. They hooked me up to the monitors and I again started cramping and contracting. They sent me upstairs to the labor and delivery unit for monitoring. The contractions got really painful and were coming 4 minutes apart. They gave me morphine and I was praying everything would settle down. The Dr. checked me and I was dilated to 4cm.

I kept bleeding so they transferred me to a delivery room. They started to set up for a delivery just in case. For the next hour they monitored my bleeding. The contractions settled for a little bit but then started up again. With each contraction I would bleed a lot. The morphine wasn't even touching the pain this time.

The Dr. came in every time I would surge blood to check the amount. He said he would like things to settle down but would have to do a c-section if the bleeding didn't stop. At one point, he checked the bleeding, left the room and then was called back about 2 minutes later when I bled a lot with a contraction. He said, "Ok, we need to do a c-section."

From that point on it is kind of a blur. I was having contractions really closely together and I was in a ton of pain. I was laying on my side and would just grip the railing with each contraction. They wheeled me into the OR and everything happened so quickly. They had warned us that a lot of people would be there as they needed a whole team for each baby.

Aden was asked to scrub up and put a gown on so he wasn't in the OR yet. I am trying to remember everything they did in about a 5 minute period. Everyone was just hurrying around and a resident Dr was watching the babies' heart rates and kept saying, "We need to hurry!" I had 2 IVs put in my arms. I was still on my side and there was no stop to the contractions. I just gripped the railing and whimpered the whole time. My back was scrubbed up and I was given a spinal. They raised the curtain over my belly and started scrubbing it.

At this point a nurse went out to get Aden. He said he had been crying in the rush of things... poor guy. I was really, really worried and nervous and I knew Aden was too. So I asked him to not look while they did the c-section if it was going to freak him out. I told him I would lose it if I saw him freaking out. He chose not to look.

The c-section took about 20 seconds. Before I knew it they said, "You have a baby girl..... and you have another baby girl." The took them to the side to get them ready to take to the NICU. I couldn't stop thinking how small they must be for only being 28 weeks. The babies each gave a little cry and then they were taken to NICU.

I was sent to recovery and I was actually pretty calm. I was really excited to see the babies. I was able to go to the NICU a couple hours later but only saw one of the babies because I got sick and had to hurry back to my room. I didn't see the second baby until the next day. That is when we named the babies. Although it wasn't until yesterday when I was being discharged that we finally decided on baby A's middle name.

Here are the stats:

Baby A- Alivia Faith born at 5:19am, 3lbs 1 oz

Baby B- Adalyn Grace born at 5:20am, 3 lbs, 2 oz

The babies will be in the NICU until the middle of January at the earliest. We are so grateful to everyone who has been praying for us.

I can't say thank you enough for everyone's support!!

More Sleep Talking

2011-11-05T09:31:00.000-06:00

I've been saving up some of Aden's night conversations but it takes a while because he doesn't talk in his sleep as often these days. If you haven't seen previous night talking posts you can check them out here.

A: Wow, She changed them really fast!

J: Who?

A: I had a dream that we had 2 baby boys. We were such good parents and we took them for a walk. One of the boys was really wet. He had soaked through his body suit. So she picked him up to change him. Then I picked him up and he was in this orange thing and I was like, 'Why is he wearing this orange thing?' and she said, 'because I put him in it' and I was like, 'oh, ok'......... They were cute though.

We were on vacation with Aden's family. He talked in his sleep a couple of nights.

A: (screaming) Stay away from me!

I woke up long enough to make sure he didn't say anything else and then rolled over and went back to sleep. In the morning Aden's mom said she was really scared because she thought Aden was awake and was yelling at someone. The next night when he talked in his sleep I didn't want him to scare his mom so I clamped my hand over his mouth and kept saying, "Aden! Shhhhhhhhh!" until he stopped talking.

A: Did you really say that?

J: (too tired to think) Uh huh.

A: Why would you say something like that?

J: What?

A: You said you were thinking of committing suicide.

J: No I didn't!!

A: Oh, good.

Aden slammed his fist into the mattress a couple times right in front of my chest, just skimming my arms. I pushed his arm away and waited for an apology. When it didn't come I slapped his hand and said, "You hit me!" Still, no apology; he was sound asleep. I was surprised he slept through the whole thing because he has been nervous about hitting my pregnant belly.

At 2:30am I heard the sink in the bathroom being turned on and off repeatedly and the cabinet being opened and closed.

J: (Calling out) Aden, what are you doing?

A: I am brushing my teeth.

J: Aden, it's the middle of the night.

A: I know but I had a bad taste in my mouth.

J: Aden, come back to bed...

When he came back to bed I sniffed really close to him to see if I could smell toothpaste but I didn't smell it.

J: Aden, are you awake?

A: Yes, I just had to brush my teeth.

In the morning I asked Aden again if he was awake in the night but he admitted that he didn't think he was.

A: You need to go get in the shower or you are going to get an infection, little one!

J: Who?

A: This little girl we are taking care of. She keeps laying under all these mattresses that other people have already slept on and she is peeing and pooping in the bed. It's disgusting! There are orphans all over.

When he was awake he said, "I had a dream we were masters at an old circus and there were all these orphans everywhere. They were filthy." I said, "I know, you talked about it in your sleep!"

Aden doesn't really like Halloween but....

2011-11-01T10:05:00.004-06:00

Aden isn't really into most holidays (which WILL change when we have kids) so it was no surprise that he wasn't very excited about Halloween this year. We bought a pumpkin a couple weeks ago, but just one because he didn't want to carve one. Well it sat on our table until last night. Aden said he would carve it for me when he got home from work. So I decided to make him a little more excited about it by printing a pumpkin pattern....

He loved it! So I guess I know how to get him excited about Halloween! And I think deep down he secretly likes Halloween because every time he answered the door last night for trick or treaters he would shout, "Happy Halloween!" or "Trick or Treat!" or "Boo!"

In other news, we got engaged 3 years ago today!

Aden's zombie movie for work!

2011-10-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

Aden finished the zombie movie for his work, Volunteer Calgary. I think it is awesome! He did such a good job. Check it out!

This was not part of my plan....

2011-10-27T11:48:00.003-06:00

Of course, when has anything with Aden and I ever gone according to our plans? Um, never. I know everything is in God's hands and there is a plan for all of us in this no matter what that might be.

So as I am sure all of you know from my facebook status updates, our baby girls might be coming a lot sooner than expected. I just hit 26 weeks today. Here's how the last few days have gone:

Monday-- I was feeling soooo exhausted and uncomfortable at work. I was counting down the days until my sick leave which would have started in 2-3 weeks (just because I was getting bigger and the dr recommended it but there were no issues). I had been getting really, really tired at work the last 2 weeks and had been praying to make it to my sick leave and that the Dr would go forward with it. Now I feel so guilty for praying for sick leave because I just want healthy babies and didn't want them to be affected by anything.

Tuesday-- I had my routine 2 week check-up where the Dr discovered that I am already dilated to a 1-2 (he didn't tell me the number but I asked the nurse yesterday). He said I would definitely be delivering early, possibly in the next 2 weeks. I got a steroid shot in my hip to help prepare the babies' lungs for delivery. Felt like I got kicked in the rear end by a horse for the rest of the day! As I was setting up the appt for my next steroid shot I kind of lost it and started bawling. The Dr said, "this is all starting to hit you now, isn't it?" I got to work after my appt and tried to get everything wrapped up so I could leave for good. My boss was actually doing interviews for my replacement to cover for the sick leave that I would have been taking in 3 weeks. When I told her what was going on she said, "You need to go home right now. Sick leave is starting right now."

That night I woke up at 3:30am and stayed awake until almost 8am. I couldn't stop worrying and I couldn't fall back to sleep. What the nurse neglected to tell me is that the steroid shot actually keeps you from sleeping. I didn't find that out until I got my 2nd shot so I was more prepared for last night's insomnia. On Tuesday night as I was worrying and crying and praying, the words to a hymn came into my mind and gave me comfort:

Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side.

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide

In every change, He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul, thy best, thy Heavenly Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Wednesday-- I had a scheduled appt for my diabetic screening thing. I had heard horror stories about it but the stuff I had to drink tasted like flat orange Fanta. Not too bad. Then I went in for my 2nd steroid shot. I told the nurse of some pain I was having and she suggested I head to Labor and Delivery (just to check things out) which is just next door to the dr's office in the hospital. Aden and I spent a couple hours there but it eased my mind to know that they were checking me out. I was still dilated to a 1-2 but the babies are both happy and healthy.

I probably shouldn't put this pic out there for the world to see because it isn't the most flattering, but this depicts my day yesterday. And for the record, this is the first time I had seen my stretch marks like this! The view I have is from the top of my belly and it looks great!! Aden kept looking at my growing stretch marks the last couple weeks and I would just comment, "I don't care if I have stretch marks. It means I am pregnant and they can take all the room they need." Now I can see why he would inspect them... I didn't think they were that bad. Oh well... I still don't care if I have them. They're love marks.

On a happy note, last saturday morning Aden and I got to park in this stall at the grocery store. I've been waiting for this day! Why do I always take pics when my hair isn't done? Or maybe it's because I never do my hair. Oh well...

Thank you all for your prayers during this time. Sometimes when I break down and think I can't make it through I think to myself, "There are a lot of people praying for you. You can do this!" So thank you! Keep the prayers coming!

"Zombies are big right now"

2011-10-16T16:31:00.009-06:00

Well, we had a pretty busy Saturday... It started out with us attending the baby expo. There were tons of vendors there and we got some free samples of products (diapers, baby formula) as well as some coupons and brochures. One booth invited Aden over as a "supportive dad" to find out what it is like to be pregnant. Mind you, this is for 1 full term baby so Aden will not know the full effect of what it will be like carrying twins. Even so, he was surprised by how heavy it was.

We then went on to our next Saturday activity.... I think this one needs some explanation. About a month ago Aden told me of an idea for a video he was going to make for work to promote volunteering (he works for Volunteer Calgary). As he told me his idea, I laughed at him. He said he wanted to have zombies going around the city doing different service projects. "Zombies?!" I asked. To which Aden responded, "Zombies are big right now!" I repeated this line to him over the last few weeks as a joke, but to be honest I started seeing more advertisements with zombies which made me admit later that maybe zombies are "in" right now.

Aden and some of his coworkers set the filming date for yesterday, which was the date of Calgary's "Zombie Walk." This way they could get some more footage of zombies, including their own volunteer zombie actors.

I was SHOCKED by how many people came out for this walk, especially because there didn't seem to be much of a purpose behind it (this was a random city event, not something organized by volunteer calgary). I think the organizers tried to get the food bank involved but it didn't really work out this year so next year they will have more of a community purpose behind it. The plaza was packed with zombies. I couldn't stop laughing inside because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Above are the 3 volunteers that Aden filmed in the walk. He filmed a couple volunteering segments before and after the walk which he will edit to make his video. I can't wait to see the finished product. Below are some of the zombies that showed up for the walk. The hockey player was one of my favorites.

After seeing this event I would definitely have to agree that zombies ARE big right now!

More than 1/2 way now!

2011-10-01T17:03:00.002-06:00

Ready for some more belly shots? I am now 22 1/2 weeks (5 months) and have been growing outwards in the last couple weeks. I don't think the pic below really depicts how big I am getting. Plus I look a lot bigger when I wear maternity shirts.

Aden has also been playing around with our new camera. We decided one night to try to copy a pic we saw online. Yes, I know the sheet is wrinkled.... and ok I had to stick my stomach out a little, but next time we try it out I think it will look better.

Autumn has come to Calgary (and might only last for another week or so). Aden and I went for a walk last Sunday to enjoy the fall colors... and it also inspired a belly pic. Ok, maybe we're a little silly with these pics, but a lady summed it up nicely at work, "Being pregnant is such a wonderful blessing. Try to enjoy it the whole pregnancy." And we definitely realize what a great blessing this is for us so I am trying to enjoy it... end relish every kick or squiggle even if my ribs are feeling squished.

For now our babies are referred to as "the princesses." My niece Lily keeps telling us we should name one "Sylvia." Not sure where she came up with that, but I think it's fair to say that it is not one of our options. How do you decide which baby gets which name when you are having 2 of the same gender? At least we have 3-4 more months to decide!

Birthday Celebrations

2011-09-18T18:27:00.014-06:00

Yesterday was my 30th birthday and it was fantastic!

To start the day off, we woke up at 6:15am, got dressed and headed to a huge "Twins, Triplets and More" sale. We got there at 6:50 and there was already a long line-up. The doors opened at 7am and it was a mad dash inside. We were unprepared for what we saw. There were tables of clothes and toys everywhere (second hand but excellent condition), as well as kids/babies stuff in another section (such as strollers, high chairs, bouncers etc...). We kind of wandered for a few minutes even though we knew we needed to act quickly. We were just so overwhelmed. Once we got our bearings we got serious about finding some treasures.

Luckily the sale was very organized and the tables were marked with the sizes (0-3 months, 3-6 months). We ended up getting two warm car seat inserts, 2 front carriers (like baby bjorns), some books and DVDs, a big ziploc of socks, bibs, onesies and quite a few outfits. We had a lot of fun but probably missed some of the bigger ticket items in our hesitation to jump in. They have another sale in April and we will definitely be attending and we will be much more prepared!

After the sale we headed to breakfast at a place called Cora. I have never been there but it was so tasty! I ordered a fruit filled crepe and it was HUGE! Aden had a ham and cheese panini.

After breakfast we got ready for the day and headed out for some more adventures. We went to two maternity consignments shops and I got some really cute tops (I am too cheap to spend mega bucks on something I will only wear for a few months).

We decided to walk around a park (Confederation park) that was close to the shops. As we pulled into the small parking lot I saw someone with a wiener dog and I said, "Look a wiener dog!" I love wiener dogs. Then I saw someone else with a wiener dog. I said, "How can there be two different people with wiener dogs going to the park. Something is going on here...." As pulled around the parking lot we saw this sign:

We then looked past the sign and saw tons of wiener dogs! Apparently it was the annual event for owners with wiener dogs to get together. We parked and I couldn't stop giggling about finding a wiener dog convention. We sat on a little hill and watched all the wiener dogs. I never knew there were so many types: red ones, tan ones, chocolate brown, black, hairy and speckled. Some owners sat next to us and their dogs climbed on our legs. We pet the dogs and talked to the owners about what it was like to have a wiener dog. It was seriously the coolest, silliest thing ever to go to this event! I wish I could find more like it!

After the wiener pawlooza we grabbed a late lunch at Subway and headed home. Aden had an afternoon Priesthood session of stake conference and then we had another session that evening. It was the perfect way to end the day. Oh, and during the day I would open presents that Aden had set out on the table. We had such a full day that Aden didn't have time to make my cake... so he is making it tonight for us to enjoy. It was such a fabulous birthday!

The BIG 30

2011-09-17T10:05:00.002-06:00

Well, it's that time again, when Jamie turns the dial on another year, and this time it is to a pivitol year. The Big 30 is today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my love. It's the start to a new year, and a new decade. So many things will be new to her, and a chance to really shine. 2 new babies on the way, motherhood, soon a different job (looking after the babies). And who knows what the rest of the future holds.

Jamie, I just want you to know how my I love you and appreciate you as my wife and best friend. I love you and support you in all that you do.

I hope this day is a great day, and it will only get better.

I love you.

Aden

Our trip to Idaho/Utah

2011-09-08T18:57:00.007-06:00

We took an amazing trip a few weeks ago to Idaho and then Utah. Our first stop was Idaho to visit with Aden's family. We did a lot of fun things together.

We went hiking...

We took a day trip to Rexburg where we walked around BYI-Idaho campus to see all the new buildings and to reminisce. We enjoyed some games at the park and ate at Craigo's pizza.

We went canoeing and saw a mama moose and her baby...

And we went to Cliff Lake.

We had such a fun time with Aden's family. This was such a relaxing way to start our vacation.

After spending a few days in Idaho, we headed to Utah for the second part of our trip. It felt like 2 vacations in 1.

Nikki "decided" to have a baby 2 days before we came which was really convenient for us! :) We got to snuggle the little bean right away. Aden got to practice his daddy skills.

We went to the Davis County Fair with Bridger and my parents. The best part was watching Bridger get really excited about the animals.

No trip to Utah would be complete without a trip to Jo-Anns! Oh how I wish Calgary would get a fabric store like this! The fabric selection is amazing and about 1/4 of the price of fabric here. Unfortunately, I was convinced I was having a boy and a girl so I stalked up on boy and girl fabric. Well.... now I have bags of blue and green fabric.

While in Utah we visited with friends, ate at Costa Vida 4 times (me) and Zupas twice, bought a double stroller and 2 car seats, was showered with lots of love and gifts at my baby shower (um, again... I now have some boy stuff that my little girls might not like sporting in public), had tons of fun with family, and bought WAY too much stuff. As we loaded the car the night before we left my brother-in-law Mitch said he was tempted to hum the theme from Tetris. Luckily, everything fit in the car with no room to spare.

We had so much fun visiting family and can't wait to do it again!

The "baby bump"

2011-09-05T09:39:00.004-06:00

Ok, here's a pic of the bump for all you curious viewers out there. I am 18 1/2 weeks (or just about 4 1/2 months). Obviously some of my weight gain has gone to my face and love handles instead of my tummy (um and don't pay attention to my hair... this was right after I got up and got dressed this morning). I am still fitting into my regular clothes, or most of them at least. It's just a matter of time before these babies need more room and start pushing outwards. I can't believe I am so close to the halfway mark!

The babies weren't shy!

2011-09-02T18:09:00.000-06:00

We had our ultra sound this morning!! A detailed ultra sound that showed us all the bones and body parts. Pretty Cool. And we found out the genders of our little nuggets! Think pink. A LOT of pink! We're having 2 girls!! I am shocked (because I thought we were having a boy and a girl) but we are sooooooooo happy!!! Aden is now really outnumbered! Both babies are looking perfect and the hematoma seems to be gone. Time to take some boy things back to the store!!

Yep, just like in the movie!

2011-08-02T20:52:00.003-06:00

Tonight Aden and I decided to head over to the book store to use some gift cards we've had since Christmas. I am more of a library girl and don't really buy books. But tonight I went right for the kids section! I spent about 20 minutes looking at chunky books. I got a little emotional when I thought about being pregnant and finally feeling comfortable in the baby section instead of just being bitter.

So what book did I choose? Luckily a friend, Alex K., had a FB status the other day about an AWESOME book that is now in stores.... "Sleepy Kittens" from the movie Despicable Me. I couldn't resist!

Back to the grind

2011-07-27T18:09:00.002-06:00

I know in my earlier blog post I said that I was on sick leave for a minor complication. You're probably wondering what that was... At the end of June we had a little scare where I thought I had miscarried. I was devastated. We spent 7 hours in the ER one Saturday evening but because I was a "non-emergency" we had to wait until the next morning for an ultrasound. After another 3 hours in the ER the next day we found out there is a "subchorionic hematoma" or a blood clot in twin B's sac. Luckily both babies are fine, but it can pose a higher risk for miscarriage. The Dr. put me on sick leave until I was able to meet with the OB. By the time I was 11 weeks pregnant I had 5 different ultrasounds. It was sure nice to have a whole month off work. I got to take naps when I was tired and eat when I was feeling sick. Aden did ALL the cooking, although I only had an appetite for a few things like cereal, fruit and potatoes. He also took over the cleaning, dishes, and laundry. What a good man. I became a master at laying on the couch and asking Aden for everything.

Well the OB said I could return to work because whatever happens will happen regardless if I am at work or not. Not the most reassuring appt. He is not the type to sugar coat anything. I like sugar. Especially if it has to do with the outcome of my pregnancy. I am just trying to take it easy at work (is that possible??) and I will just have to quit if things get to be too much. For now we are just praying that we get 2 healthy babies at the end of all this. Thank you all for your positive comments and your prayers. We appreciate it!

IVF 101

2011-07-21T08:53:00.009-06:00

Before going through the process of In vitro fertilization (or IVF) I had a completely different idea of what it would be like. When I heard that couples (usually celebrities) had done IVF I thought it was really cool. Why did I used to think that? Not really sure because it is not a very delightful procedure. But it can have very rewarding results.

Our case went pretty quickly because our family doctor ordered a lot of diagnostic tests before we got into the fertility clinic which really made things go faster. With our form of infertility, IVF was the only treatment option that would have a chance of working for us. A lot of couples start out with fertility meds for a while, then they bump up to IUI, and then when nothing else works they move on to IVF. IVF is the end of the line with fertility treatments but that was the starting point for us. We were told if IVF failed we only had 2 other options-- adoption or childless living. It was devastating when we found all this out and at times I was very bitter. I now realize it was a blessing in some aspect because we met a couple at the clinic who had been trying for 8 years (with meds, then IUI a few times) and they were doing IVF for the first time. We had been trying for less than 2 years. It definitely cut back on the amount of time spent on other treatments.

Ok, now for how the IVF process actually works. I am going to include the dates to give you an idea of how long the process lasts. We were on a waiting list for a while before getting called for the treatments.

Step one: On April 12, 2011 I started a medication called "Suprefact." It was a nasal spray that I had to use 5 times a day. It is supposed to shut down your reproductive system so that the doctor can control the time of ovulation. The side effects can be the same as menopause but luckily I didn't have any. I started this in Hawaii. :)

Step 2: Injections. I had to go in for an ultra sound (u/s) at the end of April to make sure my ovaries were "asleep." They then had me start the injections I think around April 30th. I had to do injections at the same time everyday. Below is what my daily set-up looked like.

I have never been a fan of my fat roll until this point. But I must admit, it made the perfect cushion for the needles. I had to give myself 2-3 injections a day (all at one time).

The shot below was like a huge pen. Sometimes I would only have 1/2 a dose left so I would have to give that to myself and then start a new pen.

During the 2 weeks of injections I had appts at the clinic every 3 days. They would do an u/s to check the progress of my growing follicles (the follicles should contain an egg so they count the follicles). After a few days I think I had around 9 follicles on my right side and only like 3-4 on my left. They weren't growing like they wanted them to so my medication dose was doubled. The increased dose made me sick. And it got pretty painful as the follicles got bigger.

The picture below is my last appt where they were checking the follicles. Ironically it was on mother's day. I actually had to miss the first part of church (you know the part where the talks are about moms and then the boys give flowers to all the moms). Yeah I wasn't too heartbroken that I had missed that.

Step 3: HCG injection. Once the follicles are the size they want, they mix the HCG medication and tell you the exact time that you have to have to inject it. I injected the HCG on May 9, 2011. This medication tells your ovaries that it is time to ovulate. They will schedule the egg retrieval for about 34 hours after the HCG injection. If they wait too long, the ovaries will release all those expensive eggs and the retrieval is cancelled. Below is the HCG shot. The huge needle was just for getting the liquid out of the glass bottle but it looked so scary.

Step 4: Egg Retrieval (ER). On May 11, 2011 (Wednesday) I was scheduled for the ER. I was more nervous for the sedation/pain meds than I was for the actual procedure because I had had an awful reaction to that when I had my laparoscopy in October. I told the nurse of my fears and she asked if I wanted to do it without anything. I said that I would at least like to try. When the Dr. came to get me he said he would prefer to give me at least 1/2 a dose. I really wanted to do it without, but I gave in. Aden had to wait in the waiting room and couldn't be there with me. The 1/2 dose didn't do a thing and I felt everything (which was better than having nasty side effects). I won't go into much detail of how they actually get the eggs... it's not really blog friendly. Let's just say they have to make a puncture into your ovaries and then they use a small vacuum tool to suck up all the fluid as they puncture the follicles. It felt like I was being cut up inside. The embryologist takes the fluid and gets all the eggs out. My right side was worst than the left because it had more follicles. Luckily it was only like a 15 minute procedure. Aden rejoined me once I was in recovery. For about an hour I felt like I was still being cut up inside but I finally took some tylenol and it eventually subsided a bit. They retrieved 15 eggs. The embryologist then takes over and uses the husband's sample to fertilize the eggs (this was done after we left).

Step 5: The Wait. After the ER you have to wait for a few days to see if the fertilization takes and if the embryos start to grow. We got a call for the next 2 mornings with an update on how things were going. On Thurs. we found out that 13 of the 15 survived after fertilization. On Fri. we found out that only 3 of those 13 were looking viable. It was a little depressing. Because of the low number, the egg transfer was scheduled for Sat. If they transfer 3 days after ER they will transfer 2 embryos. If they do it 5 days after, they will only transfer 1.

Step 6: Egg Transfer (ET): On Saturday, May 14, 2011 we returned to the fertility clinic for the last step of the whole process. This time Aden was able to come in with me.

Once in the room, they showed us our little embryos on a screen. They were in a little dish and they had us double check our last name to ensure they had the right ones. The dr. then did the transfer which took about 10 seconds and was kind of like getting a pap smear. They then gave us a picture of our cute snuggly little embryos. I just had to lay down for 20 minutes and then we went home. I started 2 different meds (hormones) for the next 2 weeks.

The aftermath: 2 weeks after the ET we took a pregnancy test and lo and behold.... it was positive! After getting so many negatives for the last 2 years it was almost surreal to get a positive. I continued the hormones for 10 weeks. Right after the ET I ended up getting really sick and my abdomen filled with a lot of fluid (I gained 8 pounds in 2 days). Turns out, I ended up getting ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome (OHSS) which the doctors had given me medicine to try to prevent. I am glad this hit after I was pregnant because they can cancel the ET if OHSS is too bad. An ultra sound was scheduled for June 16th where we found out that both embryos took and that we were pregnant with twins!

As I said in my last post, we are so, so, so grateful that it worked. It was a very painful and emotional process (oh yeah and a lot of money) so I don't know if we will do it again. Of course, enough time will pass and our savings account will fill back up and I am sure I'll change my mind. It is a little depressing to think that we'll still never be able to have children without the help of IVF. If any readers out there are going through infertility struggles and are facing treatments I would be more than happy to help with any questions you might have! It can be such a lonely process. Also, there are awesome online support groups out there. I joined one where all the ladies were going through an IVF cycle the same time as me. So let me know if you want any info!

Well, there ya go. IVF 101.

BIG news!!

2011-07-17T07:18:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know why you are checking my blog. I have you figured out. You are curious to see if there will be a post about IVF and/or a pregnancy announcement. You check back occasionally thinking you'll see that blog post any day now. Well.... I won't keep you waiting any longer.

We have some good news. We got called to do IVF! The wait is over! Oh, but you can't possibly wait a couple months to see what the outcome of that will be so let's just fast forward a little, shall we? We got called to do IVF in March. We're good at keeping secrets. Who I am kidding? We are the worst secret keepers EVER. Well, remember that awesome trip to Hawaii that we went on in April? When we planned that trip in December I wanted to get away from all this infertility stuff. How ironic that the original IVF treatments would be scheduled for the very week that we would be in Hawaii... which wasn't possible. So we had to put IVF off a month (which was torture for me) and we received another call in April, just before our trip. I actually started the IVF medication in Hawaii and then went through the whole procedure in May.

Ok, now on to what you REALLY want to know, right? Did it work? I'll be honest, IVF was not very fun (there will be a blog post about that later) but I will forever be grateful that we were able to do it because I am pregnant!! I am already 11 weeks. We are sooooooo happy! We are so lucky that the whole process went so quickly (from diagnosis of infertility to getting treatment) and we are soooooo blessed that IVF worked the first time. It definitely doesn't happen that way for everyone which I am sure is devastating. It is quite an expensive procedure, and can be very painful and obviously very emotional so we feel so blessed that it worked the first time. Oh but wait.... it gets better! Not only am I pregnant, but I am pregnant with twins! We are thrilled!! This may be the only chance we have of getting pregnant so we are so happy that we'll at least have 2 kids (on a side note-- I have had a little complication which has resulted in me being on sick leave from work since the end of June but I will do a post on that later). For now, we are just hoping for the best and enjoying every moment! The babies will be making an appearance at the beginning of 2012. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate it! We feel sooooo blessed!

Anything you want...in BULK

2011-07-02T10:11:00.002-06:00

There's something you probably don't know about Aden and I. Aden loves to go out and do things. He would be happy to go explore somewhere every night of the week. I on the other hand am a home body. I would be happy sitting at home just about every night of the week. Usually I win and we sit home. About a week ago I could tell Aden was getting a little tired of being cooped up in the apt. so I decided to let him in on a little secret that I found out at church: There is a Bulk Barn in Calgary. As a little background, when we were in Nova Scotia Aden took me to the Bulk Barn and told me how much he loved it there. At the time there wasn't one in Calgary. Upon finding out there is now one in Calgary he got VERY excited and even more excited that I said we should go there.

You can seriously get just about anything there. Ok so we got all candy, but they have bulk flour, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, spices, cake mix, cereal and even honey that comes out of a little spout.

The whole store is lined up with these little bins. It is kind of cool to see. I was really happy to see some candy that I haven't eaten since I was younger and lived across the street from a small candy store. Remember those sour green and white rings? I used to gather up my coins and buy a few of those as a kid. They also had those flavored tootsie rolls (lime, vanilla, cherry). Yum!

I was holding up the bag because it looks cool but Aden cut it off. On one side it is covered with tons of bulk candies and on the other side is a bunch of bulk nuts and fruit. As I am writing this blog post Aden said, "Hey we should go there today!" Tempting, but I know we will just come home with way too much candy like we did last time. I think it's best to spread out our visits to the Bulk Barn.

Our 3rd year at City Chase

2011-06-13T11:41:00.005-06:00

On Saturday we volunteered for City Chase for the 3rd year in a row. You can check out our experiences in 2010 and 2009. City Chase is like amazing race. Teams of 2 race around the city and have to complete 10 challenges (there are 30 to choose from). They find the location by decoding a clue sheet. This year we were in Lindsay Park again, but with a different challenge. We were not too happy about being outdoors because it was cold and rainy. We bundled up and brought a blanket and camping chairs.

For this challenge, one team member was blind folded while the other team member stood on the sidewalk and shouted out directions to each bucket. The blindfolded person had to grab a clue out of the bucket, return it to his teammate and then head out for the next bucket. There were 3 buckets total.

Once they got all 3 clues, they had to figure out the answer. There were about 20 different names so the teams couldn't really help each other out with the answers. The teams could use their phones to figure out the answer. Once they got the answer right, we punched their bib and scanned a bar code from their bib and they were on their way.

One thing I like seeing is the teams that dress up. We saw a couple teams registering for the event that were all decked out-- one team had complete penguin suits on and the other team had skin colored leotards on and their hair was painted and sticking straight up (trolls).

Because of the cold weather, this year wasn't as fun as the last couple years. We kind of wish we would have ran it this year instead of volunteering. I think we will try to run it next year. It is definitely a fun event and I am glad we were able to keep up the tradition of volunteering this year.

Sometimes bad things happen for a reason...

2011-06-13T08:34:00.003-06:00

2 weeks ago I was cruising around on my day off, running some errands, when I noticed the side of my car was spray painted! Hot pink. As I finished my errands I couldn't help but think, "Why do bad things have to happen to me? Can't I just catch a break?" I was quite discouraged. Well, that evening I spent over 2 hours scratching away at the paint with my finger nail. Luckily it didn't scratch the car paint. I finally gave up and the pic below is what was left of the spray paint. I don't want to post a pic of what the word was because I am not sure if it is a gang symbol/name so I don't want to promote it. But what you see below was a very small portion of what was actually there (the word was across both doors). Later in the week the maintenance guy at work gave me some thinner to try on it and it worked wonders! Made my fingernails cringe to see how easily the thinner took it off considering how long it took to scratch it off.

So where is the good in this? Well, when Aden got home from work I had him call the insurance company (we weren't sure if we could get it off). They told him that the insurance on my car had been suspended (by me, they said) back in March. Aden turned the phone over to me and I tried to work it out.

Insurance guy: You called and suspended the insurance on march 24th.

Me: Um, nope. There would have been no reason for me to do that.

Guy: Well our computer system is time/dated when people call in and you called in on the 24th.

Me: I have never called your office in my life. I did have a little wreck in march but my husband called in.

Guy: Well you must have called in and suspended it because that is how our computer system works.

Me: I did NOT call in. I can promise you that. Maybe it was a mistake on your end.

Guy: Well maybe you weren't going to be driving it for a while so you called in to suspend it?

Me: I did NOT suspend my insurance. I have NO reason to do that!

Guy: Well obviously you have no recollection of calling in. You shouldn't have been driving this car for the last few months and it shouldn't be parked on the street. We will look this over and see if we can reverse this so why don't I give you a call tomorrow? (it was close to closing time).

Me: (this is when I lost it). No, that's not ok. This is obviously a mistake from your office because I never would have suspended my insurance. This really pisses me off! You guys had better get it figured out because I am ready to go to another insurance company.

Well, about 5 minutes later a girl from the office called us back to try to figure out how to reverse it. About 5 minutes after that Aden talked to our actual insurance agent (who is actually really nice). He said it was a mistake on the part of his office girl and they were trying to work it out. Apparently, after that little wreck I was in (back in march) she plugged in the computer that the car was totalled. There was no record that my car even existed anymore. Sweet. So apparently things are worked out now. I am SOOOO grateful I never got pulled over because I would have gotten a huge fine for having a suspended insurance (up to $2,500). Can you imagine if Aden and I had decided to drive through the border at some point? (they take a picture of your plate at the border and your info comes up in their system). So I guess my car getting spray painted was actually a blessing because we would have had no other reason to call our insurance company.... Funny how even the bad things in life can happen for a reason.

More great Sleep Talking!

2011-05-13T17:30:00.001-06:00

What a comical little hubby I have. He has been talking less in his sleep, but when he does it always makes me laugh. Sometimes when I go to bed I say, "Will you talk to me tonight?" If you have missed some of his other sleep talking, you can check it out here, here, here and here.

Here's what I have collected over the last few months.

A: (in a high pitched voice) What are you doing?

Me: What was that?

A: (now awake) I was dreaming that I was pretending to be on the phone with my nephew and I was making funny voices.

A: Well that was tricky!

Me: What was?

A: You were trying to suffocate me!

Me: No I wasn't.

A: Oh... well someone was!

A: Have any of your ex boyfriends ever called you cream of mushroom soup?

Me: No....

Later in the night when I thought Aden was awake--

Me: Aden you were talking in your sleep earlier.

A: I know.

Me: You were asking me if my ex BFs called me C of M soup.

A: I know, I was just wondering if they thought you were chunky and so they called you cream of mushroom soup. (yeah he was TOTALLY still asleep!)

(wow chunky, huh? That might be enough for him to sleep on the couch!)

Ok, I apologize if this next one is TMI. It is funny so I wanted to post it. Can you tell that infertility has been on our minds?

A: I figured it out! I had this dream and now I know how we can get pregnant!

Me: (very interested in case he had just received inspiration) How?

A: It involves you and me in the same sleeping bag. I'll explain it all in the morning. (this is when I knew he was actually just talking in his sleep)

Me: Aden.... you have bad sperm.

A: Oh.......

This one was from early this morning (love how he was having a conversation with himself!):

A: Will you please turn that music off? I am trying to have a discussion with my spiritual leader and you keep blaring that Coolio crap!

A: (in a whiny, high pitched voice) No I will not leave!

A: (normal voice) Will you please go out? I am trying to talk to the Bishop and you're playing that shiz.

A: (high voice) If you don't like it then you can leave.

A: (normal voice) Look, I am asking you nicely just to go so I don't have to listen this this crap.

A: (high pitched voice) No, mwaa mwaa mwaa (weird mumbling noise).

At this point he woke up. I was afraid he was mimicking me in this conversation so I asked him about his dream. He said he was back home in Nova Scotia at church and this lady named Denise was playing Coolio and it make him really angry.

Well there you have it folks! Hope you enjoy!

100 Things

2011-05-08T16:04:00.007-06:00

I saw this on a friend's blog a few year's ago and found it saved on my computer. I thought it might be fun to fill out and post on here. Maybe you'll learn something you didn't know about us. We've put our initial next to the items that we have done.

1. Started your own blog-- J

2. Slept under the stars--J, A

3. Played in a band-- (ha! don't make me laugh!)

4. Visited Hawaii-- J, A (Just a few weeks ago!)

5. Watched a meteor shower- A

6. Given more than you can afford to charity-- (does tithing count?) :)

7. Been to Disneyworld/land J, A

8. Climbed a mountain-- J, A

9. Held a praying mantis-- J (Aden says there are none in Nova Scotia-- he has only seen them on t.v.)

10. Sang a solo-- J, A

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris-- A

13. Watched a lightning storm-- J, A

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child-- (not yet, but we'll see)

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables-- J, A

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France-- A

20. Slept on an overnight train-- J (in Russia... on GHETTO trains!)

21. Had a pillow fight-- J, A

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill

24. Built a snow fort-- J (with my lil' brother-- and we stocked it with oranges and nibs), A

25. Held a lamb-- J

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon-- J (we would love to run one together some day)

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse-- J, A

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset-- J, A

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise-- J, A (for our Honeymoon)

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person-- A

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language-- J, A

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied-- J, A

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing-- J, A

40. Seen Michelangelo's David

41. Sung karaoke-- J, A

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt-- J, A

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight--J, A

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris-- A

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling-- J, A

52. Kissed in the rain-- J, A

53. Played in the mud-- J, A

54. Gone to a drive-in theater-- J, A

55. Been in a movie-- J (in HS my friend and I were extras in a movie)

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business-- (Aden is working on it)

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia-- J (lived there for almost a year teaching English)

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching-- A

63. Got flowers for no reason-- J, A

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma-- J, A

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy-- J, A

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial-- J

71. Eaten caviar-- J (in Russia- and I'll never eat it again!), A

72. Pieced a quilt-- J

73. Stood in Times Square-- J, A

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job-- A(his grandpa's golf course when he was a teenager)

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle-- J

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person-- A

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper-- J, A

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House-- J

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating-- (sick! Never!)

88. Had chickenpox-- J, A

89. Saved someone's life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club-- J

93. Lost a loved one-- J

94. Had a baby-- (sadly, no...)

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake-- J

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a mobile phone-- J, A

99. Been stung by a bee-- J

100. Read an entire book in one day-- J

HAWAII!!!

2011-04-16T20:14:00.010-06:00

We just returned from an amazing adventure in Hawaii! We had a much needed, care-free week. Here's a look at some of our adventures:

We ate at a lot of delicious places, one of which is Boots and Kimo's in Kailua. They have the BEST banana, macadamia nut pancakes! I gained a few pounds during this trip and it was well worth it!

I am kind of obsessed with palm trees. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.

We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay (below), as well as at Shark's Cove. We also went on an AMAZING snorkel cruise where we saw huge turtles swimming underneath us. The cruise was in the morning and I hadn't eaten much for breakfast so I got a little sea sick (I get car sick and take medicine--I even took it on the plane-- but didn't think the water would make me sick). After checking out the turtles I had to get back in the boat to sip on some water. Well, it didn't work and I was embarrassed when I threw up over the side. Well then 25+ (Aden says 50) dolphins came swimming right by our boat!! Everyone jumped out to check them out but here I was sipping water and trying to take pictures of Aden while controlling my urge to gag (and no I am absolutely not pregnant). So I didn't get to see the dolphins swimming under the water like Aden did. Bummer.

Below was an amazing sunset on Waikiki. Our hotel was right across the street from here. We explored the whole island though and didn't just stay in the very tourist-populated Waikiki.

We went to Sea Life Park because my friend Jessica had some discount tickets. It wasn't the best place to see but we did get to see some turtles up close.

We went on 3 hikes while we were there. This one was at Makapuu Lighthouse. I don't know why I never hiked this when I lived there. It was an awesome hike.

Another hike was Manoa Falls. It is such an amazingly beautiful hike. We took another trail past the falls that I had never been on and it was so pretty. Aden and I couldn't stop talking about how much we want to move there.

Our last hike was the "Pillbox Hike" in Lanikai. Another really pretty hike with some great views of the ocean.

We went kayaking out to "The Mokes" in Kailua. Again, Jessica hooked us up with some kayaks. The waves were a bit much for me (I was too scared) so we didn't make it all the way to the little island. We got really close but the waves were bigger the closer we got so I made Aden turn back. :(

We went on a little drive and saw some beaches on the bottom of the island.

Mmmm.... Yogurt land! This was one of our favorite spots there. There were different kinds of frozen yogurt (like red velvet cake or toasted coconut) and you could get as much as you wanted. Then you put whatever toppings on top-- candy, cookies and fruit. At the end they weigh it and you pay. Mmmm... this was worth EVERY calorie! Also, love the asian man sitting in the background listening to a walkman.

We hit up the swap meet.

We also went to the Polynesian Culture Center one day.

We had such an AWESOME time, can you tell? We are already planning another island adventure for next year. Maybe Maui? Maybe Tonga? :)

This is why

2011-03-27T12:37:00.005-06:00

I love Aden soooo much and this is why....

Last night as I was preparing my Young Women lesson I asked Aden if he would take care of making these pots so I could work on my lesson. The lesson was "Encouraging Enjoyable Family Activities" and talked about having a "Family Fun Bag" with different activities in it. The bag was just for one part of the lesson but I thought it would be nice to give each girl one too. Well, I modified that idea and made (or Aden made) little pots instead. I cut strips of colored paper for each pot so the girls could take them home and come up with activities with their own family.

The whole time Aden was painting them I kept thinking, "He's such a good husband!" He was a little embarrassed when I told him that as I handed out the pots I mentioned to the girls that Aden had made them. :) They thought it was cute though. I definitely married a keeper!

Smashy Smashy!

2011-03-24T21:53:00.003-06:00

So my car decided to take on a Chevy Blazer this morning. Let's just say it was NOT an even match! Here's the score: My car-0, Blazer-1, Huge Ice Patch-3.

I hate getting in car wrecks... especially when I am the driver and it involves hitting a parked car. But in my defense it was caused by black ice and I wasn't the only one who fell victim to it. I was just rounding a corner by my house on my way to work when my car skidded on the ice and ran into the blazer's front tire.

As I got out to investigate the damage I noticed a whole bunch of damage on the back of the blazer and I thought, "How in the heck did my car hit the back?" I called the police and as I was talking to the dispatcher, I noticed a piece of paper on the window with a name and plate number on it. Apparently this poor blazer had already been hit earlier that morning. Glad my damage was only to the front tire.

Before the policeman came I watched a few more cars come around the corner and skid all over the road. I thought I would get hit by one of them but luckily I didn't. As the policeman was trying to contact the blazer owner, a van came around the corner and smashed into a car just behind the police car. Well, at least I wasn't the only one this morning!

I ended up driving back home and ripping off the broken portion of the bumper so I could still drive it. I had to tie up a couple pieces. My poor little car! It makes me feel bad!

Love at the Gas Station

2011-03-17T18:19:00.003-06:00

So I pretty much HATE getting gas for my car. I will drive on the gas light as long as I can just to avoid being the one who has to fill the tank. Once in a while Aden will jump in the car after a couple weeks of not driving it and say, "hey you're out of gas!" and I say, "Oh yeah... you need to go fill up!"

Last night we were at the church but we had driven separate cars because he came later than me. We left together and Aden said, "I need to stop on the way home to get gas." I said, "Oh goody because my gas light has been on for 2 days so you can fill up my car too and then go in and pay for it!" On a side note, the reason I hate getting gas is because I refuse to go inside to pay and the pump asks a million questions before you can start pumping. "Swipe card" *beep beep beep* (loud beeping noises after I push my response) "Debit or Credit?" Beep Beep Beep "Enter Pin" Beep Beep Beep "pump up to $ amount?" Beep Beep Beep "Receipt?" Beep Beep Beep "Select grade" Beep Beep Beep "Begin fueling" Uggghh... how annoying. Anyway, I digress.

So I pulled up to the first pump and started filling my car since I knew Aden would be the one going inside. Aden pulled up behind me and as he got out of his car I pretended not to know him. He said, "Hey" in a flirty way and I looked at him as if I hadn't noticed him before. Sometimes we play this little game. Well I got embarrassed cuz the guy across from me could easily hear us so we just started talking normally. After we were done filling our tanks I began washing my windows as Aden went in to pay. I didn't feel like I could drive away until they knew my gas was going to be paid for. After a couple minutes I went inside to double check that I could go and Aden said, "We're good... I took care of it." When we got home Aden confessed that when he went in to pay he told the cashier, "Hey I want to pay for that lady's gas out there." The cashier said, "Oh that's so nice!" Aden said he was trying to hide his wedding ring so the guy wouldn't think a married man was paying for some stranger lady's gas. I had to chuckle about this but then thought, "I sure hope he doesn't do this for other women.... hiding his wedding ring and paying for their gas!" :) Cute little hubby!

Life Lately

2011-03-07T10:48:00.006-07:00

I feel like I never have anything to blog about anymore. I am not a fan of cold weather and I hate going out in it so we end up staying home most nights... stuck right in front of the tv. I mean I do love a good episode of Survivor, Biggest Loser, Amazing Race or American Idol but I feel like tv is starting to take over our social life! Bring on the warm weather and some new adventures!

One new thing that has made life interesting lately is my job.... some of you might know that I put in my resignation back in January because I was not happy with a certain boss and the way things were being run. I started applying for new jobs... jobs that pay twice as much and would let me work more as a Recreation Therapist and less as a seniors' party planner. I got really excited for the chance of getting one of these new jobs. I had an interview last week which went really well. Well.... then that certain boss was let go last week and all of my co-workers and the seniors started begging me to stay. Ugh.... I hate making decisions!! I am the MOST indecisive person you will ever meet! I started hoping I would get a call saying I didn't get the job... but instead I get a call saying I am a great candidate for the position and they are checking references. The new job is just casual (or a sub) and it would be really busy for the summer and early fall and then would slow down over the winter. So I had a decision to make.... and of course IVF hung over our heads. The thought of it never goes away. What if, we thought, we get called to do IVF in June, July or August? That means we could be pregnant and due next March, April or May. Here in Canada a woman gets a year of paid mat leave, based on the hours she worked for the 4 months before she has the baby. Well, if I had this new job, I would not have much work for the 4 months before I would be due, basically meaning I wouldn't get a paid mat leave. And considering our debts and the cost of IVF, the more logical decision won out.... I pulled my resignation and will be staying full time where I am. I turned down the other job. I have benefits in my current job which will help with the IVF drugs and I will get a full mat leave. But that still doesn't make the decision any easier... especially knowing there is a chance IVF might fail. But I am hoping for a positive outcome. And maybe someday down the road the opportunity for this other job will become available again...

In other news, we are flying away to my little island in the sun in 30 days!!

We planned this trip a couple months ago and it is coming up soon! Aden and I have been getting up at 6:30 some mornings (when we can drag ourselves out of bed) to exercise (P90X for Aden and Jillian Michaels for me). The thought of squeezing myself into a bathing suit for a week is a little intimidating. I have lost a couple pounds but now I feel stuck. Any pointers for how to lose a few pounds in a few weeks? More exercise, less food? Yeah that's what I thought! I've got 30 days to step it up a notch!

Well that's about all that's going on in our lives lately.

Birthday Boy (er... man)

2011-02-21T06:39:00.005-07:00

It's my man's birthday today! The big *cough cough* 34!! He is so wonderful and I am so lucky to be married to him. We have had many great adventures together and I look forward to many more years of adventures!

Love you babe! Happy Birthday!

Another one of those posts....

2011-02-08T18:58:00.005-07:00

Have you ever watched a movie that just sticks with you for a little while and you keep thinking about it? Well, last night Aden and I watched "Julie and Julia" for the first time. Have you seen it? I'm not saying it will rank in my top 10 favorite movies but there were a couple parts that really touched me and that I kept thinking about today. And of course it is on the topic of infertility. Ok, I confess. I talk about this way too often but it is a big part of my life right now. If you haven't seen the movie then consider this a *spoiler alert.*

In the movie, Julia and her husband are walking in the park when a lady walks by with a baby stroller. Julia looks at the stroller longingly and then continues walking, looking a bit sad. I think her husband pats her arm. It reminds me of Aden and I on so many different occasions. I am the one that seems to really struggle and Aden is always there to comfort me. But the most touching moment of the movie is when Julia receives a letter from her newly married sister. She reads part of the letter and then she sits down and her shoulders shlump. She says, "Dorothy is pregnant..... Isn't... isn't that WONDERFUL?!" Her husband puts his arm around her and she begins sobbing into his shoulder. She says through her sobs, "I really am happy." That part made me cry. I have felt that emotion countless time. I think only those who are/have been infertile truly understand what it feels like. You want to be happy for someone when they are pregnant but at the same time it cuts at your heart. So today as I was playing that part over and over again in my head I took comfort in knowing that there are others out there who feel the same way as me. I am not alone. It's still hard though.

Until it's our turn to have children, I guess I just have to deal with reminders like this at the grocery store:

This sign appeared a couple months ago at the grocery store where I always shop. I hate it. I thought I had gotten a really good parking spot and started swerving in only to find this little nugget. As if I need another reminder out there that I can't have children. Ah well, enough complaining. It seems I have nothing else to blog about these days so this is all you get!

2 years ago today....

2011-01-17T08:36:00.002-07:00

Today is our second Anniversary! It's crazy to think that we have already been married for 2 years. Even crazier to think we could have been celebrating our 10th Anniversary if we had just gotten married when we first met! :) Better late than never! Man, time flies when you're having fun!

Happy Anniversary Lovie!

You know you have adjusted to Canada when...

2011-01-08T21:58:00.004-07:00

We have had really warm weather the last few days. It's been wonderful. But the temperatures are supposed to drop this weekend. I watched the snow flurries blowing outside my office today and heard comments of, "Yep, it's getting colder out there." Needless to say, I was not looking forward to walking out to my car after work. As I left the building I prepared myself for the freezing chill. When I got fully outside I thought joyfully, "Oh goody! It's not that cold yet!" When I turned my car on I checked the temperature gauge and was surprised to see "17F" (which is -8C). Yep, I think my blood has finally thickened if 17F is starting to feel 'not that cold yet.' Oh Canada... you have finally accepted me as your own.

Lessons from Trek

2011-01-06T09:17:00.005-07:00

Last summer Aden and I went as a "Ma and Pa" on a Pioneer Trek with the youth from our church. I know this activity was for the youth, but I learned so much from it, and lessons from trek keep applying to situations in my life.

First of all, doesn't Aden make the most handsome Pioneer? I think so!

A week or so ago I had a really hard couple of days with the whole infertility thing and was crying to Aden about it and kept asking him, "WHY do we have to go through this? It's NOT fair! Why can't we just have kids?" Well, my sweet little hubby said the sweetest thing, "It's like Trek and the women's pull. We are just doing the women's pull right now, just you and I. And we just have to pull a little farther to make it up the hill." For those of you confused right now, let me explain. There was a point on trek where all the boys/men were pulled off the handcart and the girls had to pull it by themselves up a hill. A little difficult, to say the least.

And just like life, we have these moments where we just have to keep pulling to make it up that hill. I love how in these pictures the men are standing so close, ready to jump in if only they were allowed to help push/pull, but giving their silent encouragement none the less. I know that in our trials, Heavenly Father is standing right behind us but is watching to see if we have the strength to make it up the hill, encouraging us all the way. He will support us in everything we go through. And hopefully soon, Aden and I will be done with our little "women's pull" and will be stronger because of it. I am so grateful for trek and the lessons it taught me.

Ringing in the New Year

2011-01-01T13:57:00.005-07:00

Happy New Year!!

Well, it's that time of year again. The start of a new year. A time for resolutions. I am actually excited to set resolutions this year because I am determined to make them happen. I WILL lose that extra 15 pounds (by March) that I gained after I got married. You can hold me to it! I am determined to be better with praying and scripture study as well. I know these sound like the same old New Year's resolutions but I am going to actually do them this time. No really, I am! Aden and I also started a new tradition this year and spent a few hours this morning deep cleaning our apt. and pulling out clothes we don't need/wear to donate to Goodwill. It felt really good. We want to do it every year now. What are your new year's resolutions?

A spontaneous trip

2010-12-29T19:12:00.004-07:00

After Christmas, we decided we wanted to try to make it to the temple, since we haven't been able to go for a few months now. I work on Saturdays and my days off are Sunday and Monday-- which are the days the temple is closed. The nearest temple is 2 and a half hours away so it's not like we can just go real quick after work. I had Tuesday off this week, so we took advantage of it and planned to go to the Edmonton Temple, which is 3 hours away (sorry these pics are so small... I took them on our phone and only emailed them as medium images.)

Well, our plans got a little loftier and we decided it was sure feel nice to stay in a hotel on Monday night and then be able to get up early and go to the temple instead of rushing it all in one day. Of course that would leave plenty of time to go to the West Edmonton Mall afterwards! Even though we were only 3 hours away, it sure felt like a mini vacation.

This mall is just amazing! It is so fun just to walk around and see all the different things they have in the mall.

We sure enjoyed our little vacation... but of course we are definitely looking forward to the Calgary Temple which will be completed in 2012.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T18:26:00.005-07:00

We had a nice little Christmas this year. It was my first Christmas in Canada, and my first Christmas away from family. Aden's family is in Nova Scotia so we were on our own this year. We would have gone to Utah but I have to work this week so there just wasn't enough time to drive there and back.

We decided to start some new traditions. We turned off all the lights and then gathered around the Christmas tree to read about the birth of Christ from the bible. Aden then opened a gift from me-- a pair of pajama bottoms. Lots of families have this tradition and it is definitely something that I want to do, especially when we have kids. When it was time for Santa to come, we each took a turn setting up each other's stocking downstairs and then covering it with a blanket.

On Christmas morning we got on webcam with my family and opened presents at the same time. Well, I think they were mostly done opening presents but they showed us what they got.

Aden had a lot of fun playing with his helicopter. He said this is the first year he has received a remote control toy. He was like a little kid when he was playing with it! Later in the day we had Christmas dinner with a lady from work and her family. When she invited us she said, "Nobody should be alone on Christmas!" Definitely a good motto we will try to have in the coming years.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Come what may...

2010-12-13T11:26:00.006-07:00

Aden and I are coming up to our 2nd anniversary and I can't believe how quickly the time has flown. We have realized over the past 2 years that we don't do anything easily or inexpensively (not by choice of course). When dating, we had to fly back and forth, or drive 6 hours to Helena to be able to see each other. When we got married I couldn't work for a year and a half and the whole immigration process was long and expensive. Why did we think it would be any differently with starting a family? I know that some of you might be wondering... and maybe you have even been checking my pics on the blog to see if I have a "baby bump." Don't worry, I do the same thing on some of my friends' blogs. Aden said the other day, "We do not take the easy route! Not us! Go big or go home!" I wanted to write this post to get my thoughts out there and to let my friends know what is going on (since I have been getting a few questions recently). I heard a line on tv that summed up how I am feeling, "You can plan all you want but the way life works is much different."

Aden and I decided to start our family 6 months after we got married. Of course we thought we would get pregnant right away. When that didn't happen we met with our doctor who referred us to the fertility clinic (or the waiting list for the fertility clinic). Over the summer we have been poked and prodded and had just about every test done, including me going in for a surgery for endometriosis (which surprisingly I don't have... waste of a surgery!). We finally got into the fertility clinic and had more tests done. Initially they were thinking we would only need to have fertility drugs and IUI which is less than $1,000 (easy way, us? No way). They kind of got my hopes up so when we met with them again after more tests were done and they told us pretty bluntly that our only chance for having children is IVF I was pretty crushed. I cried all day and couldn't help but think, "This isn't fair!!" Of course I cried some more later that day when we added up all the costs for IVF and I had more thoughts of, "This REALLY isn't fair! We have to pay so much for something that normal couples get for free." Now when we want to have a baby, we have to pay a bunch of money instead of it just happening naturally. And of course, we can't just do normal IVF... we are so special that we have to pay a couple grand more to have a special procedure done called ICSI. Go big or go home, right? (I don't really want to explain what all these stand for so if you are that curious, google has all the info you need. I have spent lots of time reading up on everything on there). I just feel very blessed to be working because I know that by next spring we should have enough money to cover the IVF costs. We are on the waiting list for IVF and probably won't be able to get the treatment until next spring anyway, at the earliest. Of course there goes our plans to pay off our debt! So much for plans!

So now on to the emotional side of things. This has been one of the hardest things I have had to go through. When I heard of couples doing IVF I never thought much about it. It didn't seem like a big deal. But actually going through it has given me a new perspective. I get very emotional every time I think about it and the costs, and the possibility of multiples, and what that would do to my body, and what affect that will have on the health of the babies. I get emotional when I see couples with a baby and wish so badly that we could have one. I get frustrated when I have a bad day at work (which happens a lot) and I wish I didn't have to work and that I could just be home with kids. I get scared when I think about IVF not working and all the money that would go to waste. There are so many feelings that run through my head all day long. I really try to have a good attitude about it all but sometimes things make it harder... like people asking if I want to hold their baby. Sometimes I am ok with it but other times I hate it because I feel like it is asking a starving person if they can hold your Big Mac for a few minutes. It is also hard when people say, "Oh, I know a friend's cousin's neighbor who did IVF and then they got pregnant with their next child naturally." I know as people we want to feel empathetic towards others and connect with them, but in this case it almost makes it worse. There are so many different causes for infertility and the chances of us having the same cause as someone's friend's cousin's neighbor and having the same outcome is probably unlikely. Anyway, enough of my rantings. I really do want to stay positive.

I am so blessed, as I said, to have a job. I am so grateful that we will be able to pay for treatment in a matter of months. I feel very grateful that we are even given the chance at having our own children as many couples are given the news that adoption is their only option. I am grateful to have such a wonderful, supportive husband who I love spending time with. Yesterday I was thinking about how much fun we have together and how much I love being married and thought, "We are in the best time of our life." I don't want to wish away the time I have right now with just Aden and I. I really believe in enjoying every stage of life that we are in instead of saying, 'I'll be happy when...' I think we picked the right motto for ourselves of "Come what may and love it." We really are trying to love life and stay strong in the gospel with whatever comes our way.

Ugly Moustache Party and Christmas Crafts

2010-12-12T11:36:00.004-07:00

It's that time of year again.... time for the Flexhaug's annual Moustache, Ugly Sweater & Egg Nog Party. You may have noticed from my last post that Aden was looking a little hairy. He grew a beard for 3 weeks in preparation for this party. Then the night of the party, we decided on this year's moustache style and shaved away the extra beard. Aden wanted some big chops to go with the 'stache. He ended up winning with the best moustache.

We brought our camera to the party but sadly I left the memory card in the computer. So we just took a couple shots when we got home. Last summer when we were in Utah, my dad was cleaning out a closet and uncovered this gem of a sweater (Aden's). Then, last visit I asked my mom if she could find me an ugly sweater. She came out with this sweater which was sooooo weird for me to wear because I have seen my mom wear it so many times when I was younger (usually on Sundays with a denim skirt and feathered hair). She said, "I might want that back" which means she would actually wear it again.... I won't be returning it to her.

CHRISTMAS CRAFTS:

We have had a busy week! I have had something going on every night for the last couple weeks. I have also been planning a big "Holiday Bazaar" at work. I had 30 vendors come to our building yesterday which meant I had to clear out all the furniture from the lobby and set up 30+ tables. Since we bought a Cricut in Utah, we thought it might be fun to make some crafts and have Aden sell them in the Bazaar. He had the day off on Friday so he worked on them during the day. When I got home from work on Friday we went to our Ward's Christmas party and then we came home to work on the crafts some more.

Needless to say, our house got pretty messy! We ended up staying up until past 2am. I was sanding and painting the blocks and Aden was designing and printing the vinyl. We went to bed at 2:30am and then woke up at 5am so we could go get the lobby at the building cleared out and set up before the event started. We were exhausted!!

Below are some of the crafts that we made. Maybe it's because I made them and I am being a proud parent, but I think they are so cute! They were so fun to make... besides the staying up late part. (In case you can't tell, the white things are tiles with words in the shape of a Christmas Tree. They look better in person)

In the end, the event wasn't the greatest. I was in charge of planning the whole thing, setting up and letting all the residents know. The marketing department was in charge of advertising outside of the building for people to come to the event. Let's just say I did the best I could on my end but I don't think it was advertised for very well as there were not crowds of people who came. I think some of the vendors weren't very happy which has made me worry about it all last night and today but I need to just let it go. Aden sold a few of his items but not very much. We should have gotten a pic of the before items, but the pics above are what were left. So to my friends here in Calgary, watch out because you might be getting one of these items for Christmas! Hey, we can't let all that hard work go to waste, can we? :)

Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Santa Run

2010-11-30T09:20:00.004-07:00

This past weekend we went to Utah for American Thanksgiving. The Gallups were heading to Utah too so we all went together. We left Wednesday night and drove ALL night. Longest night of my life! We got to my parents' house at 10am on Thanksgiving Day.

I didn't take many Thanksgiving Day pics... Trisha and her family were there from New Mexico. We had so much fun visiting with family and playing with the kids. We of course had to keep the tradition of going to a movie on T-day and luckily there was a great movie we wanted to see-- Harry Potter!

Later that evening, we headed to Walmart for Black Friday! This is my first year ever shopping on black friday, and it may be my last! We waited for a few hours and we got a Cricut, as well as a few other items on our way to the check stand.

Wow, there are WAY too many people here!! We got up to the check stand at about 12:05am (shopping began at midnight) and we were still pretty far back in line.

I think we started a new family tradition-- running the Santa Run! Aden and I were looking for races in Utah over Thanksgiving and found an awesome race in Ogden where you have to wear a santa suit (it was $35 to register and they gave you the full suit). We talked my sisters Nikki and Trisha (and their husbands) into running it. I couldn't stop giggling to myself when we were lining up for the race. We are silly!

The picture below is of the Santas lining up for the race (notice the Ogden Temple in the background). There were 700+ Santas that ran it. It was so hilarious to see everyone! During the race they were giving out milk and cookies (I had to pass on those until we were done with the race). We definitely want to do this again next year!!

Well, we got back last night and I am missing Utah and my cute nieces and nephews already. We won't be going down for Christmas so it may be a while before we go back. We had a great trip!

Sight Night 2010

2010-11-21T08:32:00.003-07:00

In case you were ever wondering, we are CRAZY! We proved that last night when we participated in "Sight Night" which is a run where "sight is optional." All of the money from the race goes towards the Alberta Sports and Recreation Association for the Blind. The race started at 6pm (well after dark here) and instead of giving out t-shirts, everyone got a head lamp. It was an 8k run, or 5 miles. When we signed up a month ago the weather was really nice. But then we got a 3-day snow storm last week followed by a plunge in the temperature. Last night at 6pm it was -17C (or +1 F). Brrrrrr!

These 1st three pics are of us bundling up. I really didn't know how many layers to put on but as it turned out, I was WAY overdressed. I got sooooo hot in the 1st kilometer and had to claw at my zipper with my big ski gloves before I burned up.

The last 2 pics are of us after the race. Check out the frost on Aden! It was a miserable run and all I could think of was the hot chocolate awaiting us back at Eau Claire (we ran right along the Bow River and across Prince's Island). The running part was pure misery but afterwards they had so much food! I was very impressed with the event! I'm not saying we'll do it next year, but you never know. We are crazy and who knows what we'll do next (actually.... we are doing the most AWESOME 5k next Saturday in Utah. You won't want to miss the pics of that one!).

An Awesome video!

2010-11-19T09:28:00.002-07:00

This is awesome!!! This made my morning. Merry Christmas!

It's official- Winter is here!

2010-11-16T18:48:00.005-07:00

Last night we went to bed and there was not a snowflake to be seen... and there was no snow on the ground either. We had actually been having some wonderful weather here. Apparently a storm was on its way because we woke up to this:

Yuck! Aden left really early for a meeting this morning and woke me up to say calmly, "We had a snow storm last night so be really careful driving to work. You should probably leave early. Don't drive too close to cars." I thought he was just being overly careful and that we had gotten a few flurries in the night until I got up and looked out the window. It took me a good 10 minutes just to get the car uncovered. So as much as I hate to say it, it looks like winter is upon us!

Pretzel Tutorial

2010-11-15T16:56:00.003-07:00

Upon request, here is a pretzel tutorial. Mind you, Aden and I are novices to chocolate-dipped pretzels so I will just show you how we did and maybe you can replicate it.

Step 1: Get supplies. We bought Bernard Callebaut chocolate pieces from Superstore (for those in Canada). We didn't get the bricks but the really small nuggets that they have in bulk. They also have chocolate wafers in bulk that are a little cheaper. I also read that you can use chocolate chips (but you have to put some crisco or shortening in it). We also bought some "candy melts" from Michaels for the purple chocolate (like the picture below). We went through way too many bags of pretzels because there were so many broken ones. We wanted to get the thick pretzel rods but apparently those aren't here in Canada. So choose whatever you think will give you the most unbroken pretzels.

Step 2: Melt the Chocolate. We have a small fondue crock pot thing (also from Superstore). This is nice for dipping if you have a small amount to dip. Not as efficient for 300+ pretzels. A double boiler would work but you would have to look up online how to do that properly. I found with this fondue crock pot that the chocolate would burn if I left it plugged in too long. Once the chocolate was melted I unplugged it and then did all the dipping (stirring it every couple minutes).

Step 3: Dipping and Decorating. I dipped the pretzels into the chocolate and then tapped them on the side of the crock pot, removing excess chocolate. I then laid them out on parchment paper. We didn't put them in the fridge because we noticed with the first batch (after we opened the balcony door to cool them) that they turned a funny color when they were chilled. We just let them cool on the counter. When they can cooled off a bit, we decorated them with a different color (or with sprinkles). The candy melts can be microwaved for a few seconds (which we did). We used ziploc bags with one of the corners cut off (just a tiny bit cut off). This makes decorating them very easy. Although, the hot chocolate would sometimes make the seam break on the ziploc. Next time we may try the bags they have at Michaels in the candy-making section that are specifically for chocolate. Hopefully they are more sturdy. We got a little sloppy on the pretzels below (well, the decorating was Aden's job) but if you are careful, they can turn out looking really good. And of course they taste really good too!

So there you have it. You will probably find your own system that works (and if so, pass some hints on to me). Enjoy!

One of those days!

2010-11-10T20:50:00.002-07:00

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, when you try on just about everything in your closet and you still can't find something to wear. You think "this outfit makes me look fat" or "this outfit makes me feel fat" or "this outfit doesn't even match! .... but wait maybe if I try this shirt on with... nope! Still doesn't match!" I tend to have those days more often than I would like. Usually on Sundays. This picture is of one of those days last week. Then of course who wants to hang all those clothes back up after getting so frustrated? On this particular day I left them all out and went to work. When I got back, the first thing Aden said was, "Looks like you had a war with your clothes this morning... and you lost." To which I responded, "Does that mean my outfit looks bad today?!?!"

Well at least on this particular day there was only one layer of clothes lining the bed. Usually there are 2 or 3 times this many clothes. Sigh... I need a personal wardrobe specialist! Or at least someone who is willing to come clean up after me!

Pretzel Mania!

2010-11-05T22:21:00.005-06:00

We've been pretty busy this week! Aden volunteered us to dip 300+ pretzels for an event he had at work recognizing volunteer coordinators. I was really excited to do them... until we actually started doing them! The colors for Aden's work (Volunteer Calgary) are purple and white so we did some in those colors. Luckily the ladies at his office bagged them all up. In the end, they were a hit and one of his co-workers asked if we would consider doing something like this for her wedding.... Hmmmm...

Oh snow!

2010-10-25T15:39:00.002-06:00

Well, I am starting to figure out why they call Canada "The Great White North" and I don't like it one bit! We had NO summer (just rain and cold overcast days). We had about 1 week of warm fall weather and then I woke up to this little surprise this morning. Snow. And to make matters worse I saw "my" kitty outside and could only imagine how cold he/she must feel. So I kindly scooped him/her up and headed indoors but he/she wouldn't have it! It won't be cat-napped no matter how hard I try!

Aden and I are looking up cruises for January. It may be the only sun we see all year. Any friends who wish to escape this awful white stuff are welcome to join us!

Canadian Thanksgiving

2010-10-12T20:53:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I am still not used to having Thanksgiving so early and ended up playing Christmas music during dinner. Aden's family lives on the other side of the country so we were alone again for Thanksgiving this year. We ran to the grocery store yesterday morning to get some traditional Thanksgiving foods... mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, turkey (or um chicken). Of course we topped it off with some yummy pumpkin pie cake. Thanksgiving for 2 is okay but we can't wait to spend US Thanksgiving with family in Utah! Of course Aden is really looking forward to black Friday shopping. We decided that on the next Canadian Thanksgiving we will try to get together with other couples who don't have family around. Let us know if you want to join us!

Date Night

2010-10-10T21:07:00.006-06:00

Aden and I try to have a date night every Friday. Emphasis on the word "try." We usually sit around the house and watch TV or play games. Well, this past Friday I was in the mood to do something so we looked up local restaurants and decided to check out a place called "Spoonful" in Bowness. We had never been there but it had some good reviews online. On the drive there we saw an amazing sunset right over COP (Canada Olympic Park-- part of the 1988 Olympics-- the building with the ramp you can see is the ski jump).

The online reviews were right-- this was a fantastic place to eat! It is a Chinese/Thai place, wasn't very expensive and the inside was very nice looking. We will definitely be going back. For those of you who live close, we recommend you go check this place out!

Of course no date night would be complete without dessert? We went to Lic's ice cream in Bowness (a first for both of us) and it was so yummy!

The night ended perfectly... just as any date night should end.... with me trying to lure a neighbor kitty into my house! I "found" this cat a couple days ago and pet him for a few minutes. When we pulled up on Friday night after our date Aden said, "Look, there's your kitty." I sat on the porch and pet him again and then decided he should come visit me in my house but I couldn't get him in any further than this. I guess he knows this isn't his house and that he really belongs to someone a couple doors down. Ah well.... someday I'll get my kitty!

Socks

2010-10-04T15:04:00.003-06:00

You know it's time for new socks when...

...they look something like this!

Aden was kicking back yesterday and then I spotted his socks! It made me laugh! I honestly did not realize his socks were getting this bad. Good thing Christmas is coming because Santa Claus sure loves to bring socks for Christmas!

Harvest Moon Half Marathon

2010-10-02T21:04:00.004-06:00

Today was the Half Marathon that Aden has been training for. I tried to sign up for it in September but it was already full.... ah, too bad. I got on the waiting list but they said it was way too long and that I most likely wouldn't get in. So Aden geared up for it and I was happy not to be running. Well, on Tuesday I got an email saying I was next on the waiting list to run the half marathon. Yikes! I hadn't been training at all. I haven't run more than 3 miles at once in the last 3 years. But I decided to go for it! I figured if nothing else I could run as much as I could and then walk the rest. Aden and I went running on Wednesday and Thursday together. Aden said, "Will you feel bad if I leave you behind in the race?" I told him no and then asked jokingly, "Will you feel bad if I leave you behind in the race?...... ha ha just kidding."

It was a chilly morning this morning and there were a ton of people but it ended up being such a beautiful day. We ran down some amazing trails with autumn leaves on the ground. All I could think was, "run as far as you can before you stop to walk or this thing is going to take forever!" Well, what would you know, I ended up running the entire race without stopping or walking! Aden took a couple of walking breaks but only came in 10 minutes behind me (yes.... he finished after me, but he wanted me to write that in really small font). My time was 2:25:07 and Aden's was 2:35:25. We were both on a runner's high afterwards! I think I may have come out of running retirement!

Above Aden is just about to finish the race (all 13.1 miles or 21.2 km). Below he is sporting the medal they gave out at the finish line. He has always wanted to run a race that gives out medals (usually just the long races do this). I am so glad he decided to run this race because I would never have decided to run it. I only posted pics of Aden because he took some pics of me after the race but I looked terrible to say the least! So they didn't make it to the blog!

I can't wait to run another race! Am I crazy? I think so!

My funny little Aden!

2010-09-27T11:00:00.000-06:00

I just LOVE these posts..... the posts about Aden's sleep talking! I am sure this will just brighten your Monday. I must admit, he has been talking in his sleep on and off the last couple of months but I am getting really used to it and don't remember many of the conversations in the morning. Actually I feel like I am starting to talk in my sleep because of him. When he starts talking it wakes me up enough to respond to him but in the morning I can't remember anything we said, just that we were talking to each other. Oh, what a combination! But the conversations below happened when I was wide awake so luckily I remembered them. Enjoy!

Last night--

A: (turning to me) So I invented this new computer program that calculates how much of your budget is spent in each category. People just put their cards in the computer and it figures it all out so they know when they are spending too much in one area (this was kind of long so I am trying to remember what he said, but I think this is about what it was).

J: Well you should use it on yourself because then you could see how much extra money you spend.

A: No.... I don't need this program! I don't spend that much.

J: I think you would be surprised....

The other night--

I woke up to Aden punching my pillow (and just grazing my back with his fists) and screaming, "GET OUT OF THERE!" a couple of times. He woke up a little bit (but not quite all awake) and I asked him what he was dreaming about.

A: We were at this studio and you were hanging out with this guy named Rob Gum. Well then you disappeared so I went looking for you and everyone said Rob Gum had taken you to his trailer (I think he meant more like in a kidnapping way). I didn't want you in the trailer with Rob Gum so I was pounding on the door and was trying to get you out!

I asked him in the morning who Rob Gum is and he said he had no idea. If I ever meet anyone named that I will make sure to stay clear of him! :)

I was not all the way awake but I could tell that Aden was not in bed in the middle of the night. I figured he went to the bathroom or something and was back to sleep before I could really think about it. I woke up when he came back to bed but it seemed like it had been a while. I listened to see if I could hear the toilet humming from just being flushed but there was no sound coming from the bathroom. I was a little confused as to where he had been at 2am.

J: Where were you?

A: I was downstairs cleaning up.

J: What?

A: I was putting the ham and jam and peanut butter in a bucket.

J: ( very confused) Were you in the bathroom?

A: No I was down cleaning up-- putting the ham and peanut butter and jam in the bucket.

J: ok.....

I woke up in the middle of the night as Aden elbowed me in face twice.

J: Hey! You elbowed me in the mouth!

A: Well I am really mad with my mother! It is my father's birthday and she brought out a box all covered with hearts and I was like, "I don't think so!" I told her to frig off.

J: Aden... that's a bad word.

A: I know.... sorry....

There's never a dull moment with Aden! I love it! Happy Monday!

A Beautiful Fall Day!

2010-09-25T19:03:00.000-06:00

I was pleasantly surprised today to see that fall is here! I was positive we had gone from Spring to Winter... what with NO summer and then rain and freezing weather for the last month. I haven't seen blue skies since, well I can't remember how long it's been. I LOVE fall the best of all the seasons. I am glad we got a glimpse of it today. Not only were there blue skies but can you believe it was actually warm here? Aden and I walked over to the park to enjoy the scenery. I was in heaven and couldn't stop taking photos!

This time of year gets me so excited! Here are my favorite things about fall:

Crunchy, yellow/orange/red leaves
HALLOWEEN!!! (I have fond memories of my mom making our costumes and taking us trick-or-treating with my cousins)
Apple cider (especially in Michigan)
Sweaters!!
That brisk, fally scent (do you know what I mean?)
Anything pumpkin spice scented
Carving pumpkins
Corn mazes (Nikki remember that one in Hawaii? That was weird!)
The start of a new school year and school supplies (even though I am graduated I still get excited about school supplies this time of year)
Fall decorations (especially at Michaels)
Thanksgiving (although I love Halloween more)
Canyon Drives to view the leaves (Utah)

What do you love about Fall?

Valentine Quilt

2010-09-20T13:52:00.001-06:00

Where else can you show off your projects but on your own blog, right? Hence the post about a project I have been working on: A Valentine quilt. My sister in New Mexico got together with some people from church and they each made these quilts. I decided I wanted to make one too. The project was a lot less work because my sister had everything cut out and had matched all the colors together-- Thank you Trisha! Mind you, this is only the top of the quilt but until I get some quilting frames, it will remain unfinished. I love sewing and I think some of the girls up here in Calgary need to get together to sew some cute projects! Who's with me?

My 29th Birthday

2010-09-17T20:47:00.000-06:00

It's my Birthday! I have been telling Aden that all day... as if he could forget it was my birthday. I have been reminding him all week. Am I excited? Maybe a little. Here's what my wonderful hubby planned for me. First we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. He gave me a card with a clue on the back. When we got home I had to figure out where the clue was leading me in order to find a present with the next clue.

After I collected all the presents, he pulled out a DQ ice cream cake and sang me Happy Birthday. I got a lot of kitchen gadgets which I was hoping to get and he also surprised me with season 1 of my favorite show when I was younger, "Growing Pains." My friend Mindy also dropped by with balloons and a cute bowl with different decorative balls.

I am a little sad that this is my last year in my "20's." I am sure this will be a great year though. I was thinking today about how much my life has changed every year for the last few years. I think it is amazing what difference a year can make. Please excuse my reflections....

On my 24th birthday I was in my last semester at BYU and was so excited to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree! I thought by the next year I would be working as a Recreation Therapist.
On my 25th birthday life was COMPLETELY different than it had been the year before. I was living in Hawaii and absolutely loving every minute of it. I never thought I would live in Hawaii but am glad I had that opportunity.
On my 26th birthday I was back in Utah (after Hawaii and then Michigan). I was working at my old job and wondering how I ended up back in Utah Valley. I was so frustrated that my future husband hadn't come along yet. Little did I know that a year later I would be practically engaged. What a difference a year can make.
On my 27th birthday I was working as a Dental Assistant, a far cry from a Recreation Therapist, but was LOVING my job. Aden had come in the picture just the month before and we were talking about marriage.
By my 28th birthday I was married and living in Canada. I was waiting for my immigration paperwork and hoping it would come soon. Aden and I had decided a couple months earlier that we would start a family and I was sure I would be a mom by my 29th birthday. I should have known from my trend with birthdays that life does not always go as planned but there are always surprises in store.
And here I am on my 29th birthday. My immigration paperwork came and I am finally using my degree working as a Recreation Director, not where I thought I would be at this point in my life, but an exciting adventure none the less. Having children is going to be a long and expensive process for us but at least this year we have some answers and maybe by next year we will actually be pregnant, fingers crossed. But if nothing else, we will hopefully be almost out of debt! Who knows what the next year has in store, but one thing I do know for sure.... one year sure can make a difference!

City-Wide Food Drive

2010-09-15T21:17:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again! Time for the city-wide food drive for the Inter-Faith Food Bank. This is the food drive that the LDS church runs and is pretty huge. The whole city is broken up into different routes which they print out and give to each ward. The wards have the assignment of distributing all the bags and then picking up the donations left on porches a few days later.

Let's review how well last year went for Aden and I. We got 1 route of 200 houses or so and I was really excited about it... until we went house to house dropping off bags. I realized how much I hated putting bags in people's mailboxes while they were watching through the front room window, or having dogs start barking at me, or the porch light coming on. Oh and let's not forget the signs on mailboxes, "NO FLYERS OR JUNK MAIL!!" because even though we don't consider our bags to be junk mail, I am not so sure these people feel the same way. I only went to the dark houses and Aden had to go to all the houses in-between (about a 1:5 ratio). I vowed to Aden that I would NEVER help with a food drive again.

Let's fast forward to this year. The food drive was announced at church and I reminded Aden that he could participate but I would not. Then he got stuck with 2 routes with 373 houses total. A hefty order for 1 person. I helped staple the papers to the bags and then followed him around last night while he delivered some of the bags on 1 route. I also folded up the bags into neat little packets while waiting in the car (far right in the pic above) which makes it easier to carry and stick into mailboxes. Man, what a good wife I am! Not! Aden was doing all the running while I sat in the car. So I sucked up my pride and helped him out for real tonight... and in the rain even!

As we ran house to house carrying our bags of all the wrapped up bundles I felt like we were reverse trick-or-treating... hitting up tons of houses but not getting any candy for our efforts! But I know the food that is collected will be a great help to the Inter-faith Food Bank. Maybe next year I won't even complain about the food drive.... maybe.

Debt-Free Forever!

2010-09-07T20:30:00.000-06:00

Aden and I ordered this book, "Debt-Free Forever" by Gail Vaz-Oxlade. We have seen her show where she gives people a budget makeover to get them out of debt and we like her approach. We decided we would give it a try. I sat down and wrote out all our expenses on a budget sheet I photocopied from the book. Then I made labels for these little jars for our monthly expenses. That was the easy part. Now we have to use a set amount of cash each month instead of our debit cards. All our surplus will go towards our debt (my car loan, Aden's student loans). If we stick with it then we will be completely debt free in 1 year! Knowing how quickly we will be out of debt makes us even more resolved to stick with it!

The jerk store called....

2010-09-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

...and they're out of ME! Do you ever have one of those days where something makes you SNAP? And all your rage is directed at another person for no reason? Today was one of those days for me and now I hang my head in shame. Please tell me I am not alone. Do you ever have moments when someone, let's say behind the deli counter at Safeway just sets you off? And then you slink out to your car only to realize you were the jerk and not the lady behind the deli counter. And you don't even have pregnancy or that time of the month to blame for your rage. And then your husband says, "it's ok, next time just try to communicate better. Do you want to go in and apologize?" and you say, "I should, but I'm not going to." Oh how I wish I could tame my hot temper. Sadly this is not my 1st offense and probably won't be the last. Even Walmart employees and cell phone customer service agents have received the full measure of my wrath, not just Safeway workers. Someday I'll get my tongue under control.... someday.

Happy Half Birthday!

2010-08-23T12:35:00.000-06:00

Saturday was Aden's 1/2 Birthday and just like last year, he totally forgot. At least he was completely surprised and thinks I am the best wife now! I ran to Safeway to get a cake and was pleasantly surprised to find they make 1/2 cakes there! Perfect. We have decided for 1/2 birthdays to give 1 gift, but this year the guy at Walmart did a great job on getting me to not only buy the 1st season of Big Bang Theory but the 2nd as well. So Aden was a little spoiled this year but maybe I have set a good standard for gifts and will get rewarded in a month when it is my real birthday! :)