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.