SHH, Be Still

It's morning time on Christmas Eve. Shhh, I finally have time to blog about the Christmas season. Mollee is actually awake, but she is refusing to get out of bed, and hey, I'm not going to push her!

Normally, we have a tradition of going out to Vernal to the Uintah Mountains to cut the most odd-looking Christmas tree from the tallest peak and haul it back to our house. I have been doing this since I was a wee child and my innocent little brothers would throw snowballs at me every time my parents were "searching" for the perfect tree. Ah, brings back memories of long, long car rides, singing perfectly in tune "shut your trap" to each other, and steaming hot chocolate mugs begin whacked upside our heads . . . all to end up in a very silent sobbing night. Who wouldn't want to miss that?

Well, everyone did. My sister refused to go because she's in the "teen I'm too cool for this" phase and both of my bros just absolutely said no. Unfortunately, I didn't want to haul my 7 month pregnant body up and over mountain after mountain, so . . . Jon, Mollee, and I decided to do the next best thing . . . find a tree at Smith's Marketplace.

Jon still pretended to cut down the tree and we warmed up inside the store. Cozy 106.5 was there and Mollee spun the wheel and won a pony movie.

Later this month, Mollee got to go have dinner with Santa at the Zoo Lights. Why is it that other children want items that Santa can afford like gum ball machines, toy dolls, etch-a-sketch while my kid asks Santa for a $200 talking Barbie house and a big toy (she means bike)?

This month has been filled with family, parties, fun, hard work (we're working on moving Mollee to a new room and revamping her room for the baby), and of course, doctor's appointments (3 this month). Time is marching on and it's almost a new year. The Frazier's want to wish you guys (if Aimee is saying it) or y'all (if Jon is saying it) a safe and happy holiday season.

Tryptophan Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was pretty much a yawner for us, however, my brother and his wife suprised us with having their baby girl, Nora, two weeks early. They had her via c-section on November 20th and were in the hospital for Thanksgiving. It seemed like the show just couldn't get going without them and I totally forgot to bring my camera to get a good pic. Ugh, onto Christmas . . .

Chunky Monkey

So, yesterday when I went to the doctor, I walked in confidently thinking that the doctor was going to say, “Congratulations, you are just one week away from entering the third and final trimester! I’m glad that you’re still alive.” Instead I heard, Aimee, you’re fat.

Okay, so the doctor didn’t say it quite in those terms. What she said was, “It looks like for the last two appointments your weight has spiked. Normally, we like to see a gain of 1 pound per week. You are about 4 lbs over that – total.”

This is what went through Jon’s head, “Man, I’m glad that I’m not the patient. Thanks for taking one for the team, Aim.”

This is what went through my head, “Are you serious? Do you know that I’m pregnant? Do you know that I’ve been sick and lost 6 pounds in the first two months? Maybe I can cut out the donut that I eat for breakfast in the mornings. Did you even look at my history chart before telling me this? Maybe it is true that you gain more on subsequent pregnancies. Is it too late to change doctors to get a second opinion? Maybe I’ll up my workouts from one walk around the lake at my work to two. How many pregnant women actually stay within the ‘averages?’ Okay, so I can forgo the cheese on my baked potato for lunches (but I’m not willing to sacrifice the sour cream.) Are you even supposed to lose weight when you’re pregnant? What am I supposed to do with this info? The once a week ice cream night is definitely out. Why did my doc have to tell me this two weeks before Thanksgiving?”

Jon had to try to do damage control the entire way home from the doctor’s office. He did a pretty good job with his pep talk. Then he dropped me off at home and headed to work. I . . . . worked out. Now my leg hurts and I’m even more hungry than I was before.

Don’t I deserve a break . . . after all, I am pregnant! Hello!!

Mollee searched costume after costume. She passed on the princesses; she passed on the fairies; she stopped at the cow. What a cute cow she made. We met Tinkerbell at my brother, Darin's, work the day before Halloween. Mollee partied all day on Friday at daycare and ate her fill of cupcakes. By the time we were ready to go trick or treating on Saturday, my little cow was exhausted. She went to house after house for about 45 minutes before turning to Jon and saying, "Daddy, this cow is tired." She came home and wanted to give all of her candy to the trick or treaters that showed up at our house. What a kind little cow!!

Forgiveness

Every day, on my way home from work, I have to drive past a billboard with a familiar face plastered all over it. This person that owns this face hurt me when I was younger. She doesn't know it, nor would she likely remember my name, but I have hated her for years.

Jon told me that he would do anything to make me feel better, including dressing up in all black, buying a bunch of spray paint, and assisting me in climbing up the ladder to that billboard to vandalize it in any manner that I would like.

I laughed, then I read this book. You never truly know what others pasts are. You never know why people say or do the things that they do and you may not understand their intentions . . . they may not even understand their own intentions.

Many people have said and done things that have hurt my feelings, but I have really been the only one that has hurt myself because I let myself be angry and only I am to blame for letting myself hold onto grudges. So today, I'm going to work on forgiveness. I'm going to forgive those who have said the wrong thing at the wrong time; I'm going to forgive those that have walked past me when I've hurt, and I'm going to forgive myself for holding on too long. Maybe then, others will forgive me for my ignorance.

Playing Catch-Up

In a way, it's great that time has passed so quickly. I'm happy to say that I am now halfway done being pregnant. I've finally resigned to the fact that I am just not one of those lucky people who love being pregnant. I'm not even one of those people who likes being pregnant!

The good news is that I have felt better this pregnancy than the first go round; the even better news is that we found out that we are having a boy. The ultrasound lady didn't believe me when I started whooping and hollering that this will be my last!! We'll see . . .

I love the fall time. I decided to get all Suzy Homemaker and learn how to can. Jon and I canned our first peaches and pears. The fruit flies have now found new residency with us, but the process actually turned out really well.

My parents have been displaced since April because they had a little disagreement between them and their all too ancient bar-b-que. The bar-b-que finally had it and launched itself up into the rafters of my parents home making the roof an early firework show for the neighbors and the news. They were finally able to return to their house at the end of September. Their house looks beautiful. I'll have to make sure to take some pictures to show.

Now that it is October, we are busy with setting up our extravagent Halloween decor spectacle. Watch out, Jon is thinking of who to kill off this year for his cemetary. We had a blast picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Jon now wants to be a pumpkin farmer once he retires and Mollee wants to be a tractor driver when she grows up.

Two years ago...

Every now and then I thought I would do some flashback blogging and share some things we did before we started this site.

In August of 2007, Aimee and I got this great idea that we would hike to the top of Mt. Timp. We decided to take Mollee with us. (Thinking back...first bad idea). Mollee and the backpack with all Mollee's gear weighed about 30 pounds. I carried a second pack with food water and our gear. Also about 30 pounds...and off we went.

After getting a late start (bad idea number 2), we started our hike and couldn't really determine from the map where the trailhead actually started. By the time we finished arguing and got going it was already 10am, but we decided to keep going anyways. (bad idea number 3). After about 30 minutes I started to stuggle from carrying 30 pounds of water, so I stopped and started dumping some out to lighted my load. Aimee reminded me about a book we read called "Over the edge: Death in the Grand Canyon" and how people died from heat deprevation because they didn't have enought water. Needless to say, we kept going. It was fun, and after an hour we got up to this waterfall. Very nice.

Then we looked up and wondered "where the heck the trail was and how long would it take us to get up and back down?". But, we kept going. After we got somewhere between 9000 and 10000 feet (almost to the top of this picture) we ran out of water (of course) and we were sore and tired and it was about 2:30 in the afternoon. Both of us were stubborn and neither wanted to quit. But I really didn't want to be on the 5 o'clock news either, so we turned around and went back down.

Now every time I drive to work I look up at Timpanogos and think "Man, one day Aimee and I will try again...most likely without Mollee (unless its 10 years from now) and earlier in the morning and with lots of water." Its was still a lot of fun, even though we were sore for a week.

Are you my Mommy?

Since I've been pretty sick, Mollee decided that she needed to go to the store to shop for a new Mommy. She found this sporty mannequin while her and Daddy were shopping for my birthday. I think that she has pretty good taste in choosing Mommies. This one looks like she is ready to take Mollee to fun places, and after all, Mollee did choose me to be her ultimate mommy!!

Sidenote: Later this summer, Mollee and I went to Kohls where she saw more mannequin mommies with no heads. She was very concerned and I think that ended the quest for a new mommy.

Trials in my life

Being pregnant with Mollee was the #1 hardest time in my life. I had hyperemesis gravidarium (which is a severe kind of morning sickness) for the entire pregnancy and actually ended up losing weight rather than gaining. Basically, Mollee was trying to kill me. So . . . at the end of June when we took this test
and the results showed that . . . I was not excited. There was no big announcement, no celebration, just tears.

Don't get me wrong, I was grateful to be able to get pregnant, but I suspected that it would be another tough adventure and I have been right. I have spent this summer lying near the toilet for the better part of it. I have been upset and cursing God for most of the time.

I have been wondering, "Why, me?" Why do I get so sick? Why can't those women that I watch on Maury Povich who are testing out 5 different dads get sick? Why can't those women who think that morning sickness is all in my head get sick? Why can't those unwed 16 year old girls get sick? Why, at the very least, can't every woman experience just a little bit of nausea?

As I was asking these questions once again today, I was reading (or rather stalking) everyone else's blogs. I came across Callie Canlas' blog. Callie is a neighbor in my ward (now former ward) and she was talking about another person, Stephanie Nielson and how Stephanie completed a hike a year after her accident. I thought . . . who the crap is this Stephanie and what happened to her. I linked up to her blog and found out that Stephanie was in a private airplane crash with her husband. She and her husband survived, but had to go through a ton of pain, surgery, and time in a burn unit.

When she was finally able to blog again, she was talking about her daily routine and how she prays a lot, cries a lot, and wishes that she were someone else at times. She then said . . . going through this plane crash is my trial. That hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like Heavenly Father said, finally Aimee, you get it. Life is fair. Everyone's trials are different. Some go through physical pain; some go through emotional pain. Some people have really tough pregnancies, some can't have children, some are in unhealthy marriages, some don't have the opportunity to get married, and some people are in plane crashes.

The important thing is, we all have trials and no trial is worse than another's or less painful. If you are going through a trial, remember this, Heavenly Father is there and he does love you. He is not having you go through this because he thinks it's funny or he is getting back at you - he just knows you and he knows that you can make it. Being pregnant is my physical trial - and I will survive.

Rainy Rodeo

Aimee Mollee and I went to the Riverton rodeo on Friday night. We were met by the Chick-fil-a cow and shook his hand. Mollee had to go back and see the cow at least once more, although you'de think she was really scared from the picture. (nice port a johns in the background).

We had a blast even though we got soaked from the rain. Luckily, Aimee's mom brought extra blankets so we had something to hide under for half the rodeo while it dumped rain on us.

Mollee really liked seeing the "big cows" (bull riding). We had to take several trips over to the pens to see more big cows. She tried on a couple of different pink cowgirl hats that were really cute. She got some cotton candy, but then refused to eat it cause it looked like fuzz or hair. So Aimee and I had to polish it off.

Once the rain moved though it ended up being a nice night. The skydivers came for the last part of the rodeo once all the lightning had passed.

It ended up being a fun night and we plan to go back again next year. Mollee enjoyed seeing all the horses and cows and asked me to show her the chick-fil-a cow picture at least 5 times while I was typing this blog. I asked why she acted like she was scared of the cow. She said "because I have too."

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF??

#1 - Get ahold of this book.

#2 - Find 1 hour to read this book.

#3 - Ask yourself, "What I am afraid of?"

#4 - Ask yourself, "What I am going to do to overcome this fear?"

#5 - Do it!!

One of my biggest fears that has prevented me from living a happy, normal life is building relationships with people. I have never let many people close to me. Recently, my fear has so hindered me that I get anxiety before going to events, going to church and Relief Society functions, and pretty much anywhere else. I don't like to run into people that I know and I can't even stand in my own front yard without Jon for fear that someone might walk by.

It's not that I'm really shy or that I don't like people, it's just that I've built my own wedge between me and the rest of society by telling myself over and over again that I'm different because I'm a working mom, or because I don't like to cook, or because I'm a girl that likes sports, and so on and so on. I then talk myself into the farce that I have nothing in common with anyone and therefore nothing to say.

After years of wondering what the root of my problem is, I first read this book and then I opened up to some really wonderful neighborhood ladies who had some really great advice. From these two things, I learned:

a) Why do I need to know what the root of a problem is in order to get past it?

b) There are a lot of people that feel the same way I do, I just don't know it.

c) Mollee is picking up on my fears and exibiting the same behaviors as she is just learning how to build friendships.

d) My fear is preventing me from serving the Lord.

I made a goal to get over this fear. I picked a really challenging thing for me, go to the park. For some of you, you may gawk at this simple task, but for me, I break out in a sweat thinking that I may run into someone and not know what to say. Soo . . . I'm going to do it. I'm going to work on this fear and hopefully you will take on the challenge to determine what fear it is that is preventing you from living life and to do something about it!!

Mollee had that look in her eye

Aimee had signed up to play mini golf for Olson-Shaner (her company) in the Metro games. She had recovered from the bruises on her hands and arms from volleyball, and was ready for another medal.

I watched Mollee while Aimee was golfing. At Boondocks they have bumper boats, and as soon as Mollee saw them she gave me that crazy look and I knew she would not take no for an answer. Mollee lucked out and was just at 36 inches so she could ride them. Needless to say we had a lot of fun. The bumper boats were set up with squirt guns that could launch a stream about 10 feet. Once Mollee realized that, she tried to squirt people until she figured out that everyone squirted her back, and there was no mercy for 2 1/2 year old kids. In fact, most everyone found it more fun to make her scream. But she had a lot of fun anyways.

Aimee had fun golfing, but her team didn't come close to any type of medal this time. Then the next night we went to paintball and Aimee, Mollee and I watched Preston (Aimee's brother) and some of her co-workers play four qualifying games. They ended up missing the bronze medal match by just two points. Ah well, it was still a lot of fun.

2 Time Gold Medalists

The bruises are finally healing. This weekend Jon and I participated in the Metro Games Volleyball tournament. Now, you may ask, from what professional volleyball background do the two of you come from? Well, the answer to that is . . . besides dinking around, none. We decided to sign up for the Metro Games because all of the sports that we were always told that we weren't good enough, strong enough, fast enough, or tall enough for, we finally now get to play.

As we watched the other teams high-five way past our reach and perform spike drills, we stood up to the plate (or rather court) and guess what . . . we actually, lost and then, we lost again. With the third times a charm luck on our side we played the third team and lost again. Then, some sort of miracle happened. I gave Jon a pep talk on the side and our team came up with an immaculate strategy, do whatever it takes to hit the ball over the net. We followed that strategy and won our next three games which placed us in the fourth seed going into the single elimination tournament.

With knees bloodied and arms bruised, our team played until we were elimated by the #1 seed. We then fell to the "non-winners bracket" and hit, bump, and . . . okay, so we never actually spiked the ball, but we managed to squeak out a victory to win the bronze medal!! It looks really nice next to the tennis bronze medals that Jon and I won in the Metro Games last year. Misty May and Karrie Walsh, watch out, we're coming for you next!

Taking Our First Blogging Steps

After making a New Year's resolution to start up blogging, we have finally gotten started now that it's half-way through 2009. So . . . be kind to us since we are newbies. The wisest advice that we received when talking about starting a blog was, "Write to your audience." We still need to consider who our audience is . . . if we are writing to Jon's family, our favorite color is BYU blue, my family, Runnin' Utes red all the way . . . I think that we have settled on our favorite color as green (we are choosing this because, of course, it's Mollee's favorite color - Go Tinkerbell!)