There's No Place Like Home

I don't know if its the familiar smells of the seasons, running into someone you know wherever you go, or just the comfortable feeling of being with family and close friends, that makes Utah one of my favorite places to be. I miss being around lots of members of the church, fun restraunts, and neat places to go shopping. It always just feels so go to be home in Utah even for a short time.

The trip was planned so that Mike could defend his master's thesis. He has been waiting a long time for the opportunity. He worked so hard preparing for his presentation that he didn't sleep the night before. Infact, he bearly got any sleep the week before. He did a great job on his power point presentation although a good majority of the information was over my head. Mom and dad, Elsie (my mother-in-law), and I were there to support him. The presentation lasted over thirty minutes and then we had to leave while Mike answered more questions. Then he came out while the board discussed more. It is a little bit of a lengthy process but the results were great: Mike passed! He has to make a few changes to his paper but that was expected. In two weeks he will officially be done.

That was nice to have done and out of the way at the beginning of the trip because we always have so much we want to do while we are there. Here are some of the things we did:

1. We ate at Costa Azul and Rumbi's grill. Those are two places that I crave all the time.

2. I went to Mike's cousin Afton's bridal shower.

3. Mike went shooting with his dad, Kade our brother-in-law, and some of his friends.

4. We went to a BYU men's volleyball game. They are fantastic by the way.

5. Crocheted with Elsie a little.

6. I visited Brenda Heaton one of my oldest friends. And while I was there she cut my hair.

7. I got to chill with Kelli Radmall my best friend.

8. Laurel and Jason Richardson visited me with there new baby Isabel. She is so much fun. They are great friends.

9. We attended Sacrament meeting in the great pv 8th ward. To Mike's absolute delight there was a district of russian missionaries visiting the ward. He got to converse with them and even found one of the elders was good friends with one of his old companions. He is excited that he found a way to contact him again.

10. I had lunch with some of my mother's siblings and their families. It was nice to catch up with everyone. Sadly Mike couldn't be there because he had to fly back to work in Tennessee.

11. Mom and I shopped around for cute fabrics to make a baby quilt. Cute boy stuff is so much harder to find. It took us all day to find something we liked. We also bought wool felt to make cute newborn shoes and we bought some fabric to make cute bibs. I had no idea one could buy iron on stuff to make oil cloth.

12. Mom and I went to Dave's Bernina and bought a pedal for the old sewing machine Mike has. Now I can be a sewer too.

13. Mom and I stopped by Costco to pick up somethings. It sounds so unexciting but I truly miss costco. They don't have them here.

14. Mom and I started on the projects that we bought all the supplies for. I love being busy and doing stuff with my hands. Not only was it a great opportunity to hangout with my mom but it gave me the chance to learn some new skills. Guys love a girl with skills.

The best part was just seeing everyone that I miss so much. I wish that I could have visited more friends and spent more time with family but luckily we will be back in June. I think it will be our last visit for awhile. I won't be able to fly for a few months after that. Being pregnant isn't that bad but it has some set backs.

Thank you to everyone that let us stay with you. We appreciate all the time you set aside to be with us. We miss you already.

Here is a picture of the baby quilt my Mom and I are in the process of making. It is kind of crazy but lets face it that's just my personality. Just wait and see, it will look good.

Isn't it Beautiful?

We were outside planning on where to put our garden and we almost froze to death with the cold wind blowing. So, naturally after we put our coats on we went back outside to fly our kite. This is Mike flying the kite on the side of our house. You can see Bob if you look for the white speck in the picture. He loves to run and play and get muddy in the yard.

Anxiety at Walmart

I decided that I am going to make better dinners for when Mike gets home from work. Anyone who knows me is probably aware that I am not the most experienced cook. For the most part I have just made simple dinners such as hamburger helper or pasta or stuff that is quick and easy. I was always too tired when I got home from work to make something more complicated. Now that I have all the free time in the world, I made a goal to be better.

Today I found some recipes online that look great. I made a grocery list of all the things
I will need for the next four nights or so and then I headed out to our beloved walmart super store. It took awhile to round up all the things that were on my list. Don't you just hate grocery shopping? Anyway, I jumped in the shortest line and it was my turn before I knew it. I had a pretty good sized load in my cart so the bill wasn't tiny. I went to pay with my usual debit/credit card and to my horror it wasn't in my wallet. A few months ago we cancelled our other card because someone stole the credit card number and racked up a bill in Arizona. Mike had taken the check book out of my purse and therefore, I had no way to pay. Have you ever been in this situation? I had no idea what to do. The cashier voided it out and set the cart aside while I ran to the car to see if by some miracle I left my card out there. Nope, no card there. I searched my wallet and purse again. . .no card. It was almost 5:30 and Mike gets off work at 6:00 so I called him but he didn't pick up the first few times I called. Ahhh! I waited a few minutes and Mike called back. By then I was bawling and I am sure Mike thought something terrible had happened (give me a break I am a super emotional pregnant lady). I explained to him what had happened between sobs and he said that he would leave work right then. He is my hero and he swooped in to the rescue as always. It was torture waiting for him to get there. I didn't know whether or not to put back or trade back all of the frozen or refrigerated stuff or if I should just leave it. Well, it all turned out fine and I did end up finding my debit card when I got home. The End.

Our Kitchen

Little by little I will post pictures of what the inside of the house looks like. Here is one angle of our kitchen. It is a big kitchen so I couldn't fit it all in but you get the idea.

Here is a picture of the other side of the kitchen.

On Tuesday April 10, we met our new doctor and found out the sex of our baby. WE ARE HAVING A BOY!! The doctor said that so far everything looks good and that he is right on track to be born around August 26. Hooray! We can't wait.

Our Easter Trip


Mike had the Friday before Easter off because of good friday. We had to take advantage of his time off so we drove up to Ohio to visit the Ford's. On the way we stopped in Louisville, Kentucky to stay the night and to pick up the Stringhams. We slept in Grant and Cole's bunkbed. They were really excited to see that we brought Bob the dog. They played with him the entire weekend. Cole's favorite activity was to climb in Bob's kennel with him. When Cole was supposed to be in bed he would sneak over to Bob's cage to pet him. The boys slept in the basement and Bob would sit by the door and cry for them.

My favorite part of the weekend was just being with everyone. Mike and I got to meet our nephew Creed for the first time. He was born March 22, 2007. He is so cute. We got to hold him, burp him, and change him. It made us even more excited for the day our baby comes.

While we were there we dyed easter eggs, played games, and went to the Duckling Day Parade. Every year on the Saturday before Easter, a local library holds the duckling day parade. All the kids dress up like ducks and follow the mother duck around the park to mimic the classic children's book, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. This year it was extra cold so we mostly just watched from inside the library. It actually snowed while we were there. We watched a puppet show and the boys loved it. Then we went to our good friend's the Erneys house and had brunch. I nannied for the Erneys one summer about four years ago. They are great people.

One night Stephanie hid plastic eggs all around the yard. When the kids were asleep we got out our coats and flashlights for a midnight hunt for eggs. Everyone had his or her own color to search for and there was a golden egg with a gift certificate for the lucky finder. We had a blast.


Here is a picture of us with Creed. I know that Mike is going to be a great dad. Look how cute he looks holding baby Creed.

The Easter bunny was kind to us this year. Here is some of our loot. Last year mike decided to start a new and very random tradition of getting a fresh pineapple. I can't quite explain it. Also seen in this picture is little Cole. He loves Uncle mike.

We really did have a fun weekend. It was so hard to go home.

A Crib!

There is a store in Kingston that carries slightly damaged furniture for a reasonable price. The Relief Society President told me that occasionally you could find baby stuff there so I decided to stop by yesterday to look for a crib. They didn't have any that I could see so I asked an employee how often they get shipments in. When I told her it was a crib I was looking for she took me into the back of the store. There hadn't been any room for a crib on the floor so it was being used as a storage place for a billion electric blankets. After pulling all the blankets out to take a better look, I could see that it was just what I needed. It was a display bed at a store and seemed to be in great condition other than a few scratches in the white paint.


I spent a long time in the store. First I needed to get a hold of mike but unfortunately he was in a meeting that ended up lasting hours later. So I bought the crib by myself and plotted getting it home. I knew that I would have to take it apart to fit it into the 4runner. I needed a hex wrench key to take out the screws and they didn't have one at the store so I made due with a random tool and set out to work. It took awhile but I did it. Before I left I spotted a dresser that matched the crib pretty well and I decided to get it too. One of girls working there helped me carry everything out to the car and then I fin ally drove home.

I got the bed all put together before mike got home from work. Here are some pictures (sorry they are a little dark).