A Week of Tender Mercies

WARNING: Very long post; read at your own risk. May cause drowsiness, boredom, and/or fatigue.

So, after being home for over a week, I am finally going to write about our week in Florida. It not only was a week of vacationing and fun, but a week of constant reminders that our Heavenly Father is aware of us.

We flew standby which turned out to be an experience in and of itself. I have flown standby before with horrible luck, but was hoping that with two of us this go around as opposed to four from my first experience, we would be able to make all our flights . . . and I was wrong. We have officially decided never to fly standby again.

Fortunately, we made all three of our flights on the way to Orlando. We flew to Vegas, then to JFK, and finally to Orlando. It was on the flight from JFK to Orlando, when I received my first reminder of how aware Heavenly Father is of me and my current needs as His daughter.
As we came to our seats on the plane, I noticed the woman I'd be sitting next to as she sat quietly just staring at the window. From the moment I saw her, I could tell she had a very heavy heart. I felt a very strong impression that I needed to talk to her, but had a very difficult time doing so.

My mind was flooded with thoughts as I tried to think of a way to begin a conversation. She was a spanish-speaking woman, so I frantically tried to remember some Spanish that wasn't a door approach. However, I didn't want to say anything too shallow, as I knew I needed to talk to her about something more than what the weather is like. And then of course, my biggest challenge was just getting up the courage to talk to her. My shyness was getting the best of me, and I could not get up an ounce of courage to approach this woman who would not look away from the window as tears welled up in her eyes.

After 20 minutes of babbling in my head and praying for courage, I finally decided to pull out my scriptures to try and gain some strength - maybe read some classic missionary scriptures to get me motivated.

The second I opened my Book of Mormon, before I could even pick out a place to start reading, this woman leaned over to me and asked me to help her. She asked me to pray for her. My heart was pounding with gratitude to my Heavenly Father and also with humility as I still did not know exactly what to say to this woman. I asked her what was troubling her. She told me that her daughter had passed away only three hours prior.
My heart hurt for her, and all I could think to say was to share my testimony with her of eternal families. I found some scriptures to share with her and with horrible spanish translation explained to her what they meant. I wrote the scriptures down for her with my simple testimony. She then thanked me and after de-boarding the airplane, we parted ways.

This experience left me with a few strong feelings. The first was a feeling of gratitude, as I felt this experience was something that I greatly needed. It had been so long since I shared my testimony with another person, let alone a complete stranger. I felt grateful that my Heavenly Father was so aware of me and my needs that he allowed me to sit on that plane, next to that woman. My second feeling was one of humility and almost shame. I felt horrible that I was not the one to speak to this woman, but that she is the one who first spoke to me. What if she had not had the courage to ask me for help? What if those 2 1/2 hours passed by with neither of us sharing a word? I would have failed my Heavenly Father and the promptings I had received to speak. I also felt horrible that I did not have any pass-along cards with me or anything to give her with the church's information. What happened to my missionary-mindedness? I used to never leave the house with some pass-along cards in my purse.

I was suddenly aware of how much I am lacking in the spiritual realm and how much work I need to do to get to where I should be in my life. I truly feel that flight was a blessing for me.

After arriving in Orlando late Sunday night, we drove straight to our friends' (George and Lana Taylor) house where we would stay the next 3 days and went straight to bed. What a blessing the Taylors were for us - in so many ways. They not only opened their home to us with such short advance notice, they let us drive their car all week, they let us eat their food, and they shared with us their incredible examples of strength in the gospel. We were and are so grateful for the chance we had to spend a few days with them.

On Monday, we slept in until about 9:00 or so and woke up to some good company while we ate breakfast and enjoyed a relaxing morning before heading off to Gatorland, where we saw lots of "Gators" and enjoyed what I might call the white-trash park of Orlando, Florida.

Then our Disney adventures began on Tuesday with what I believe to be another tender mercy from the Lord. Amongst all the favors we received from friends for this Florida trip, Dave got a 3-day Park Hopper pass to Disney World from a friend of ours. She had never used it, and even though it was about 5 years old, we had great hopes that it would still be good. When we arrived to the gate to purchase our other ticket, the lady told us that the ticket was actually not good. It had been purchased as part of a package deal that was only good for the time of the package. We kindly argued with her that the ticket stated right on it that it expired "14 days from first use." She understood where our frustration came from and tried to make a couple calls but we were not having much luck. So we begrugingly handed over our credit card to spend the FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS it was going to cost us to spend our two days at Disney World. After running our card, she told us it was declined, which was weird because we had plenty of money on it seeing as how we never use it. So I pulled out my cell phone to call the credit card company to authorize the transaction. While on the phone, a supervisor came over to the girl helping us and Dave explained our situation. By the time I got off the phone with American Express, the supervisor had authorized a complimentary park-hopper pass for us to use. I honestly think it was a blessing from the Lord that our credit card declined, because if it had not, we would not have been blessed with that ticket. It gave us the amount of time we needed to talk to the right person.

We enjoyed a very long and crazy day at Animal Kingdom and Epcot that took a major toll on the poor feet of this pregnant woman. I honestly did not think it was possible for my ankles and feet to swell up as much as they did. I quickly realized that a vacation of running around like crazy at Disney World, was probably not the best idea for a pregnant woman. But I decided to try and make the best of it anyway.

Our second day of Disney, we went to Magic Kingdom and enjoyed some of the easy going rides there as well as the lovely atmosphere of Magic Kingdom. However, after a few hours there, Dave and I really wanted to return to Animal Kingdom to go on one of the rides we didn't get a chance to. It was a river rapid ride, and those are my favorite, and I decided I just couldn't live with the disappointment of not experiencing it. So we returned to find out it was an 80 minute wait and there were no more fast-passes. Man, some major disappointment until .... yep, another blessing. A couple standing near the ride overheard Dave's disappointment and offered us their fast-passes as they had decided not to use them because they did not want to get wet. I cannot even explain to you my relief when we were able to hurry our way through that line and get to experience the shortest river raft ride of my life - a whole 3 minutes of getting drenched.

After all the excitement of Disney World, we spent the third day at Sea World with our good friends Ashley and Dan, who we then spent the remainder of the week with. Who knew I was such an animal lover? But I ABSOLUTELY loved Sea World! All the shows were soooo cute and I was amazed at how well trained these animals were. I just wish I had videos of all the shows to post so all could see them. I guess if you haven't been to Sea World before, you'll just have to go sometime.

On Friday, our last full day in Florida, we spent a relaxing day browsing through antique shops and then sitting on the beach. It certainly was nice to have a day that wasn't so busy and filled with crowds of people.

And then Saturday afternoon came and what I would like to refer to as the travels from Hell began. We didn't get on our flight from Orlando to JFK by just one seat! And then the hormones and stress of a pregnant woman who just wanted to be home kicked in. I cried, I stressed, and I frantically searched for a way to get home. We were able to get on the next flight to JFK which of course would not get us there in time to catch the flight to SLC. With the flight loads for the next day, there was no way we'd make it back to SLC within the next 24 hours, and I really didn't want to spend the next two days in New York. There was a flight we'd be able to catch to Denver from JFK that night, and I was ready to do it and then rent a car and drive to SLC, because I just wanted to be home. After getting off the plane at JFK, we frantically ran to the gate for the Denver flight as it was about to take off, then we were told a flight to Las Vegas had been delayed and was just now boarding. So we then ran down to the gate going to Las Vegas and made it on the flight! I could not have been happier. Again, I felt blessed that the flight had been delayed. If not, we would not be able to make it to SLC for another 2 days .... ughh.
After arriving to Vegas and checking the flights for the next day to SLC, we decided that it would be best to just rent a car and drive the rest of the way home.

Finally, after 24 straight hours of no sleep and staight traveling, we made it home! I had never been so glad to be at my parents' house (which is where we went first to pick up our dogs). What a trip it was, and certainly some great (and not so great) memories.

Our first and last real vacation as a married couple without children was a good one with such good memories and blessings from the Lord.

It's a Girl!!!

I know not everyone knows yet that I'm pregnant, but now you can all know. I wanted to wait until we had the first ultrasound to make sure that there really is a baby that is growing before we announced it to the world. And now we have, so now all can know.
I am only 17 weeks along, but the ultrasound technician will do gender checks early, so I jumped at that opportunity to not only find out what we're having, but just so I could actually see my baby before my dr. apptointment at 22 weeks.
We went in yesterday and got to see our baby for the first time moving around on the screen. It was great to actually see it. Although, the experience didn't really make it feel any more real to me. The only thing that made me feel pregnant was the horrible nausea and exhaustion during my first trimester. Now that I'm over that, I just plain don't feel pregnant. I have to keep reminding myself that come July 18th, we are going to have a baby, and life is going to be very different for us.
Dave and I are very excited to have our first baby (aside from the two babies we already have - Emmy and Porter). It will definitely be an adventure to add a baby with two full time jobs and full time school between the two of us.
Dave will still be in school, as he still has another two years ahead of him (I feel like I've been saying "two years" for the last two years .... oh, wait, I have... hopefully, it's really two years this time). For those of you who don't know, Dave changed his major last semester from Construction Management to Secondary Education in Business and Marketing. He is extremely excited about the change and loving his classes so far. He has also decided to double major while he's at it in Business Management. It will be a lot of work and take a lot of patience and endurance to get through, but it will be worth it.
I will keep working at the neurology office where I am right now, and Dave will hopefully still be with Kohl's Dept. Store. He recently got a job there in Customer Service and Cash Office. He is only working part-time for now, but we are hoping he will be able to get a full-time management position soon.
So that is where we're at right now. Staying busy and planning for a new baby girl. I will keep everyone posted as time goes on.

Funny Videos

I posted these on my facebook account as well, so you don't need to watch from both. Porter was being hilarious on Sunday, so I decided to record a little bit of his personality. Dave was sitting at the counter going through coupons when he heard Porter knocking on the wall. When he finally looked over, he noticed Porter was trying to get the reflection on the wall, from Dave's watch. He loves to chase a laser too, but we just thought this was funny since we weren't even trying to get him to play. Now you can all get a little taste of our funny Porter.
With the first recording, I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to rotate the picture, so I apologize for the sideways video, but you'll get the idea.



The second video is the funniest, I think (you'll be able to tell from my uncontrollable laughter in the background). He was looking for the reflection for like 5 minutes before I started recording. Even today, two days later, he was in the kitchen looking for it. He is so stupid, yet so smart at the same time.

Holiday Update ... A little late

So I know I'm a little late in posting, but I've been too busy and tired to even get online lately. Just like I usually report on these posts, we didn't really do anything too exciting, but still had a good Christmas and New Years.
We spent Christmas with my family in Syracuse and had a lovely time with them. And again, as usual, I am horrible at taking pictures so I don't have any of Dave and me, but I did take some of Camille's family on Christmas Eve. After doing a little nativity skit, Camille read some Christmas stories, and the kids loved them.
It turned out to be a pretty humorous Christmas morning as we opened presents and discovered that my parents got both Dave and me the same presents we got for each other. I guess that goes to show how boring our lives have become -- we are so predictable and with such little variety that there are only so many things we want and need.
The next week, we were able to go to Blanding to spend a New Year's Eve and a few days with Dave's family. We had a good time getting away from the hustle of our life at home and being able to just relax for a few days and spend some slow-paced days with family.
Unfortunately, we are now back into the groove of life and back to work and school. I hope we can last until the next holiday ... whenever that will be.

Goodbye Ashley

This past weekend was a sad one, as it came time to say goodbye to my best friend of ten years so she could leave me and move to warm and sunny Florida. Ashley and I met when I moved to Utah my sophomore year of high school. Ironically, we didn't really like each other when we first met, but somehow, we started hanging out more during our junior year of high school, and we became best friends.
There have been many times throughout our friendship that we have had to say goodbye. The first being our Freshman year of college when I dropped Ashley off across the country at what was then Southern Virginia College. She returned to Utah for a short time, and then it came time to part ways once again when she decided to move to San Diego. Shortly after that, I then left for a year and a half for my mission in Chicago. Upon returning from my mission, we moved to Provo to be roommates for the first time, and it was a blissful time with so many great memories: the Southbeach Diet, working out at 24-hr. fitness (when we actually mustered up the energy), watching reruns of NYPD Blue, eating regularly at the healthiest of restaurants - Burger Supreme, taking Sunday naps in our shared room, crushing on stupid boys and strategizing ways to see them and make them love us.
After a year and a half of living together, Ashley decided to move forward in her eternal progression and she got married. That, too, was a type of good-bye.
Although we have had many times that we have parted ways, this good-bye is the first real one, as we will now be across the country from one another for the rest of our lives. This good-bye just made me realize even more that I am really growing up. (You'd think at age 27, I would have already realized this, but I think I've been in denial). It is amazing to think back to that time when you were still in high school, or even the beginning the years of college, and you don't even come close to understanding the changes that life will bring. It seems like I went from being a young, single girl, without too many cares to being a married woman preparing to raise a family in just a blink of an eye. It is truly amazing how quickly time flies.
With time's passing, and changing circumstances, it is nice and comforting to reflect on the great memories of the past. It is also a blessing to reflect on the friendships you've had and to think about the impact others have made on your life.
So although it is hard for me to say good-bye to Ashley and let her move clear to Florida, I know that it is part of life, and a good part of life. And I can say that I have truly been blessed by her friendship and the experiences we have shared together.

And the stockings were hung...

Unfortunately, we don't have a fireplace and mantle to hang our stockings on, so our little shelf will have to do for now.
My make-shift holly-berries with pine. I think it looks much prettier in person. My little pine tree branches have pine cones in them and are frosted. They are so pretty with the berries.
Porter has found that he loves to lay and play underneath the Christmas tree. He is sooo cute. If only our Christmas tree skirt wouldn't end up all tangled every day from him running around the tree with Emmy. I guess I can just count my blessings and be grateful that they haven't attempted to eat our ornaments or any part of the tree.
A horrible picture of me and Dave at the Festival of Trees. We went with my parents, Kathryn, and Brittany. It's just not the same to us anymore without going for a Sunshine Generation performance. Yeah, we're all geeks, but we have great Christmas time memories from it all.
And of course a cute picture of my too perfect sisters, Brittany and Kathryn. Their cuteness just makes me sick.


The weekend after Thanksgiving I was so excited and motivated to decorate my house for Christmas, and I got parts of it done, but still have yet to finish. I've been waiting to do all my decorating to post pictures, but at the rate I'm going, my house may be as decorated as it's going to get. I thought I'd post pictures of the few things I have done. The tree is a work in progress, so I am not going to post that picture yet. Of course I do have a cute one of Porter under the tree, so that I will have to post that one even though the tree is incomplete.

Even with all the decor, I still don't feel like it's Christmas time. I was so excited for the holidays as soon as October came around, but I'm just having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit and really feeling like it's Christmas. I've been trying to do all I can -- listen to Christmas music, decorate the house, work on making Christmas gifts, and we even went to the Festival of Trees. However, I'm just not feeling it. I am going to blame my lack of Christmas spirit on work. Work just seems to get in the way of everything. Unfortunately, work is going to have to remain a part of my life, so I will continue trying to get into the spirit of giving and holiday cheer.

Gratitude for Trials

For most of you who know me, you know that I generally have an early bedtime, so to be awake and writing at this time of night is a rarity. However, there is reason for my being up late. Tonight started out as a less than average night. I came home from work tired and worn out as usual to Dave, who was not so happy with me because of a little disagreement we had earlier in the day. So after sitting down for the night, we began a discussion talking about where we're at in life, where we're at in our marriage, and what things we need to work on right now. Although the discussion started out with more frustrations than anything, it ended on a really good note and with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for what our Heavenly Father has given us.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, the beginning months and years of our marriage have had their fill of trials (as do most). Through this time, as we've suffered from multiple job losses and trouble getting pregnant and watched others our age seem to have success with both matters, we have wondered why these specific trials are those that we've had to face. I grew up in a home where my father had the same job for 30 years and layoffs were not something I understood. Dave has grown up as a hard worker who has always been valued for his strong work ethic and never thought that holding a job would be a challenge he'd have to face. And yet here we are, two years into our marriage, with three job losses already and an overwhelming question in our minds wondering if job stability will ever be something that we will be able to experience.

During these specific trials, I have listened to many people speak about their gratitude for the trials they have been given and the blessings that have accompanied those trials. And I have continually wondered how they could be grateful. I honestly never thought that I would come to a time in my life when I would be grateful these specific challenges I have been given. I had lost hope that I would ever see the blessings from these times.

Finally, tonight, it all clicked for me. As we have talked about our struggling economy and the large amounts of people who are also experiencing job losses, I couldn't help but feel grateful that these challenges have come at this time in our lives. There are so many people out there who have lost jobs while they have had large families to support and large bills to pay. Although we have suffered job loss, we have been lucky to experience it while we're young, without children, and while I am still working with an income.

And I realize that just because we have experienced layoffs early in life doesn't mean we will be immune to them later in life. But how grateful I am that we have learned how to deal with these challenges so that we will know how to face them in the future. I also think about how grateful I am for these life lessons that we have gained at such a young age. We are being taught how to live within our means and prepare for ourselves for any upcoming struggles in our economy and in turn within our family.

I can finally say that I truly feel blessed for these specific challenges that we have faced. I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for the many opportunities he is giving Dave and me to learn and to grow together. I only pray and hope for those of you who, too, are facing challenges that seem unbearable. I pray that you will get to your day when you can understand the reasons behind your trials and feel the incredible blessings that come with them.