Long overdue...

I strongly feel the need to publically express some personal and spiritual feelings that I have about my religious faith. Many of the people who read this blog are LDS; however, there are many who aren't, and I feel like I should publically express my testimony and how strongly I feel about my membership in the LDS church.


I was just watching General Conference, where our Prophet and Apostles spoke to us for a couple days (live in Salt Lake and on TV elsewhere). It was wonderful, peaceful, inspiring, and insightful. It made me again disappointed with myself in that I have no problem telling a perfect stranger why I joined the church and what it means to me, but that I have a hard time telling old friends, family and loved ones about it. So it is time to publically say...

• I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that he lived a perfect life as an example to us and that he suffered and died for us voluntarily so that we may live eternally with him.


• I know that he organized the church on the earth, but that over time, the church changed (partly due to other people killing his apostles, etc) and the true church was no longer on the Earth.


• I know that Joseph Smith received a vision from Heavenly Father (God) and Jesus Christ, when he was looking for the right church to attend. They told him to attend none of them, and in time, revealed the true gospel, which is now known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.


• I know that the priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith through John the Baptist, and Peter, James and John from the New Testament times. Through that we now have present-day prophets, apostles and modern revelation, as occured through these apostles and Jesus Christ when they were on the earth.


• I married my sweet husband, Scott, in the Mesa LDS Temple (much to the disappointment of many of my non-LDS friends and relatives) because in temple weddings, we can be married for time and eternity by living virtuous principles and obeying the commandments.


• I know that I will live with Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, my family, and many, many more wonderful people for eternity as I continue to strive to live the gospel more fully in my life.

I have been a member of the church for almost 6 years (May 3, 2003), and it has been the most joyful, peaceful time of my life. I am so happy to be a member of the church, because I receive GREAT blessings through my obedience to the commandments. And yes, I am including the blessings I received when I gave up coffee, tea, and alcohol. I can't imagine my life without the gospel. It would be dark and confusing. I would be happy to go into further detail with any of you, and if you would like to research this independently, I highly recommend http://www.mormon.org/ for more information. Thank you.

Music and the Stories of Life

I have recently watched two of my favorite movies back-to-back, Dan in Real Life and Nacho Libre. They are quite different from each other, but there is one thing they have in common...their soundtracks are perfect. Nacho Libre's music is goofy, random and totally makes me laugh. Dan in Real Life's music is sincere, funny at times, and totally makes me get all warm and fuzzy inside. Those would also be my description of the movies themselves. I have seen each of these films 10-15 times each and I can't get enough of them. Now I know why... the music brings the stories to life. I can think of several other classic movies with great soundtracks...Forrest Gump, The Breakfast Club, The Notebook, and Shawshank Redemption. Those are just a few, as I know there are many other movies with superb soundtracks...music that ingrains the story into your soul and doesn't let you forget about it. That, my friend, makes a great movie.
And if you've ever wondered what my life's soundtrack would be, just ask me. I already have it on cd...for at least the first 30 years of my life :)

Heaven on Earth

I have recently read of HBO's plans to portray the LDS temple in a casual light. This is the church's response, a simple message about the true purpose of temples. Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_-TQivCx8

What was I thinking?

My friend Mary took the cutest picture of our fam last fall for our Christmas photo and I didn't even post it! For crying out loud!(scottish accent used here)

Anyway, here's our photo from our Christmas card. It's about the only thing Christmasy that made it to the blog this year, and it's 3 months late. Oh well, we can't all be perfect like those once-or-twice-a-week bloggers. You know who you are :)

But there is one thing I can be very proud of...I have my taxes done and submitted early!! This is a first since our business opened 4 years ago. Yay for refunds!

Bryce loves Wawa!

We have been terrible at taking family videos, even with our new camera. We either forget when the time is right because we're enjoying the moment, or we record it and the lighting/angles/something looks terrible. Maybe my expectations are too high, but that's me.
This is a pretty monumental event for Bryce. Up until very recently, he HATED taking a bath or doing anything that got him even a little wet. We have spent so much time and money on bath toys to help him enjoy it, and he's finally decided water time is fun. So we let the good hygeine rules on drinking from a hose go out the window and enjoyed Bryce having fun with water. Afterall, you're only a kid once. Bring on the germs!

p.s. I love his muscle shirt!

Little laugh for your Wednesday

The following is the winning entry in an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's term was Political Correctness.

The winner wrote: "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
R. J. Wiedemann LtCol. USMC Ret.

Where have I been?

Some of you may be asking yourself that question, when I've been a relatively faithful blogger. Well if you want to know, our computer with all our pics crashed right after our vacation (hence no holiday pics), then I got a horrid sinus infection (no more pics) and now we are slammed with our busy season (ie all the snow birds just realized they only have 2-3 more months to get hearing aids and get them adjusted/programmed and such before they leave for the summer...yikes for them...Great for us!).

I am truly grateful the Lord continues to bless us, even though the news spells horrors of the economy. I am also grateful my uber smart husband picked the PERFECT industry to start a business. Things haven't been so busy for us in TWO years! We prayed for it, but I am still grateful. Plus I have had the best closing ratio (selling ratio) in the history of our business. I am for once doing better than my husband (but don't tell him I said that : ) The last time I was close to this good was the last time I was pregnant... maybe the hormones are good for my selling strategy...or maybe my "glow" makes me cuter so all the old people have no choice but to say "Here's my credit card!" :) Either way, I'll take it!

Anyway, last Sunday I was determined to download videos and post something cute from the farm in Texas we visited over Christmas and the ultrasound we just had on DVD, but NOTHING worked!

I was hoping for a really cute way to tell you all that we are having a GIRL!! But this boring way will have to do. I just want you all to know that I will someday have pics up here again, but for now, know that I love you all and hope that life brings you blessings as it brings me mine :)

Meet Logan

I know I am TOTALLY overdue to post some pics of our family, and mostly Bryce. But this is our busy season, and well, I haven't had any free time.

I also know that I NEVER post these kinds of things or even send these kinds of emails, but it got me a little choked up. Maybe it's because I'm pregnant, but I'd like to know if I'm silly in tearing up over this little video clip. It is so true.

This is actually about the radio station I listened to as a child.

Earplugs...the perfect treatment for the Terrible Two's

So Bryce is going through his Terrible Two's six months early. He's always gone through the difficult things early or for a long time (or shall I say, I've gone through the difficult things early). He was teething at 10 weeks old, reflux-y for a long 15 months, and now he's a terrible two-er at 18 months old. Is this the red-hair in him or is he just so excited to grow up he wants to skip ahead to the next stage? The funny thing is, he isn't that early on the good things...he's a early on talking, but he's been right on schedule for everything else that's good and exciting.

So, this week has been especially Two-ey. He's thrown absolute fits EVERY night this week. I mean, screaming, throwing himself on the floor, out-of-control fits. To use my favorite college Kim-ism, he was SWOOC - So WAY out of control! We tried time-out, but it didn't always work. He wouldn't eat, play, nothing. They really come out of nowhere - he has quite the red-headed temper! (All I ask, God, is please give me a break from redheads...let my next child be a calm brunette or blonde PLEASE)

I've read to not get emotionally involved at all. Well that's hard to do when he's trying to rip my beautiful Korean artwork off the wall or I can't even enjoy a nice dinner with my husband. So our solution Thursday night...EARPLUGS! We put our trusty earplugs in and just ignored him in the other room (of course he's far away from any of my artwork). We actually enjoyed a nice, pleasant conversation!

On a positive note, we did have a breakthrough on Friday night. Instead of getting Bryce out of time-out after 5-10 minutes, in which he was still upset, I waited until he had really calmed himself down. In Friday's case, it took him 20-25 minutes of SCREAMING to calm down. But he did, and then he wanted to be held. The funny math equation there is, when he was in timeout for 5 minutes, he'd want to be held for 10 minutes, when it was 20 minutes, I had to hold him for 40 minutes! Funny I know, but I guess it helped remind him that he's still loved. But he was darling after that. He ate great, was so sweet, and has been sweet and fun ever since.

So I'm hoping that the blessing here is, that he's done being a terrible two-er in 6 months when I have another baby. Until then, we'll keep an extra set of earplugs downstairs, just for sanity insurance :)

Will I ever have my body back?

So I've been a mother for 18 months now (over 2 years if you include the pregnancy), and for the most part, it is one of the best things I have ever done. But one thing that seems to never go away, is the fact that my body is not my own anymore. If you're a man, you probably don't want to read this:

1) As a pregnant woman, I feel I have little control over my body. I've never been a "puker" (and God bless you souls who are), but I've had the nasty sinus infection for about a week (hence no blogging), and I throw up at least once a day due to all the mucus I have in my throat. I feel like each time I throw up, I'm losing more control. Like today, I puked on myself in the car driving 70 mph with NO warning. (TMI...stop reading!)
2) When I was nursing, I was a slave to my reflux child. There were so many things I couldn't eat that bothered him (the worst thing to give up...chocolate!) Plus there was that nasty diet for a year from the infection I contracted at the hospital (which is why I will never willfully have another baby in the hospital again : )
3) Finally, my pre-potty training toddler (we're reading and talking about it now) wants to poke his finger in the toilet (and other places) every time I pee or poop. TMI, well you should've stopped reading earlier if that's the case!
4) My boobs used to be so perky and the perfect size, and now they shrunk to almost-too-small-to-measure and lifeless. My only source of hope and comfort is to get pregnant again so the hormones give me a temporary boob job!
5) In the old days, I was a smart, creative, and spiritual business woman. That doesn't exist when I'm pregnant or nursing. I'm dummy-headed...absentminded, not able to intelligently finish a sentence, etc. My only reprieve this time was 5 months of sobriety (the 5 months between nursing Bryce and getting pregnant again). And I heard it gets worse with every child. Is this true?

So my question is...will I ever get my body back? Is this the true sacrifice of motherhood? Is this why older wealthy women spend inordinate amounts of money to fix what childbearing caused? I guess my husband should start saving now...it's going to be expensive.

5 Fantastic Things about Today

1. My baby is the size of a fig and is almost fully formed!
2. I got my Christmas photo cards printed!
3. I am far less nauseous than I was a week ago!
4. Bryce still sleeps at least 16 hours a day! (I am so spoiled)
5. I just paid $14 to refill my gas tank! (1.51/gallon) I remember paying over $40 this year

Today is a great day...partially because I decided to notice the good things in the day. I was feeling so sorry for myself about my sickness, etc. I just decided this week to be happier because, as Abraham Lincoln said, "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Santa came early!

So Santa came early...or shall I say, one of our family Christmas gifts came and Scott could not contain himself until Christmas and we enjoyed it early! It is the coolest contraption, a bike trailer. But not your usual bike trailer...

It's a tandem bike that attaches to a regular adult bike. A child can sit in the back seat and peddle and learn to ride. It's designed for kids ages 5-10, but the weight limit is 200, so I rode it! Then we put Bryce in a carseat and attached the carseat to the tray in the back. Doesn't sound secure? I thought so too when looking at the picture online, but Scott insisted it would be perfect. As usual, all of his "crazy" ideas are always perfect! I have learned after 4 years to just trust his notions, even if they sound crazy to me, because they always work out (except once, but one in over a hundred ideas is still great odds). Afterall, he is an Aquarius...he always thinks outside the box! So I let him order it, and it came yesterday. After I went to bed, he spent all night last night putting it together and surprised us this morning with a bike ride to Denny's (a mile away) for breakfast. We all loved it, especially Bryce. After breakfast we walked down to the pond across the street and fed the ducks (Bryce's new favorite animal). Bryce had a great nap after all this excitement and then we took the bike out again to go ride and rent a movie. Both experiences were fun, exciting and great. Bryce kept talking the whole time, although I'm not exactly sure what he was talking about, except when he said "ho, ho, ho" when we'd pass a house with a santa in the front yard. I don't have pictures because we were all riding and, honestly, I didn't think about blogging about it until now. I was just reflecting on how perfect of a day it was with my family.

This website would sell a lot more of this product if people knew it was adaptable for babies. It's only a little more than other baby bike trailers, but so much more versatile and safer! Bryce was safely secure in his car seat. I'm not soliciting for them, but if anyone is interested in bike trailers, I would check out the Morgan Cycle caboose bike trailer!

Oh, and I promise, no more Christmas presents early!

It's a grape!

I'm so excited! I can't contain it anymore. I know it's taboo to kiss-and-tell too soon, but I am pregnant! Nine-and-a-half weeks to be exact and I am so excited! The cool thing was this time, I knew I was pregnant a week after I conceived even though I got negative pregnancy tests - it's weird how a woman knows her body.


I went to my midwife today and heard the baby's heartbeat and I just melted (and teared up a bit)! It's funny how I have heard it before with Bryce but it is so special with every pregnancy. I have been so sick this pregnancy, which was a surprise because I wasn't sick at all with Bryce. Some are saying that means I'm having a girl. When we were trying, I felt like it would be another boy, and then as soon as I was pregnant, I felt like it was a girl. Does that make it a double-negative and they cancel each other out...or am I having a girl because I think so now that I'm pregnant AND I'm sick? Who knows for another 10 weeks.


Well, according to http://www.babycenter.com/ (my favorite pregnancy website), my little one is the size of a grape this week. It's got all it's major body parts but still has a lot of developing and growing to do. Oh, and my due date is June 28. So both my children will be Cancers (as long as I go at least 39 weeks, but if I'm earlier she/he's a Gemini which is cool too!) I get along very well with Cancers. Let's just hope I don't have another red-head. I love Bryce's hair, but he's got quite the temper : )


So this is the longest blog-post yet. But I have to show a pic of my barely-showing belly. I can tell, a few others can tell, but the question is...can YOU tell? Not to give myself airs, but I normally have a flat tummy (and a smaller butt, too). It's a little bump for now, but I promise it will be bigger than last time!

Editorial on the pic: it was late and I didn't pay attention to the fact that I was wearing a green shirt against a green backdrop...maybe not the best idea for dramatic effect : )

The Twilight Phenomenon

Let me just say that I think it is absolutely amazing that one author, unknown before this book, can create a phenomenon about a love story about vampires. I have not read the books, but I have followed as almost all of my friends have read it and are most likely obsessed with it over the past 2 years. Now that the movie is finally out and everyone thinks it's lame, I am glad I haven't read it.


But this is typical of me, I never got into Seinfeld or Friends or The Office until years after it was popular. A good TV show had to prove that it was good enough to stick around before I started spending my 30 minutes to see if I'd like it. I now love all of those shows. I've also still not seen/read Harry Potter yet. So when everyone has moved on to the next big fad, and when the crazy hype has cooled off and everyone has forgotten about it, you'll find me reading Twilight.

I've been tagged...

I groaned when I saw myself tagged, but it was actually fun/interesting to do. Here are my answers, with some editorials too!

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I was a sophomore at ASU...eegads I feel old (so far I've been reading friends who were in junior high or high school 10 years ago)
2. Recovering from my traumatic brain injury - sounds depressing, but it really took all my energy to recover as quickly as I did. (it took 5 years)
3. Working as a college tutor for a freshman dorm (Sonora). Got a free dorm and got paid to do it (that was such an easy job, I miss it. Life was really much simpler)
4. Getting over my first love - the firefighter that broke my heart (I was so stupid)
5. Spending a lot of time with my best friend Jessica at Starbucks! (the funnest part : )

5 Things on my to-do list today: (quite boring)
1. Go through my inbox (go through mail, sort bills, send to bookkeeper, review financial reports)
2. Finish payroll for our 6 employees
3. Order supplies for offices
4. Take Bryce for a walk to the park
5. Go to enrichment

5 Snacks I enjoy (I'm still on a modified Candida cleanse diet):
1. Potato chips with onion dip (yummmmm)
2. Half a banana
3. Protein shake with berries
4. Triscuits with goat cheese spread
5. Plain cheerios

5 Places I've lived:
1. Houston, TX (Spring, Kingwood, Atascocita)
2. Austin, TX (Round Rock)
3. Tempe, AZ
4. Mesa, AZ
5. Chandler, AZ (my current and my fave!)

5 Jobs I've had: (I've had many so I'll just name the highlights)
1. First job ever: Admin Assistant for my mom & her boss when I was 15-17
2. Residential Tutor at ASU
3. Recreational Therapist at Art Awakenings (Art Studio for people with mental illnesses)
4. Special Olympics Coach/Coordinator (for City of Chandler then City of Mesa, then Arizona Special Olympics)
5. Owner/Manager/Hearing Specialist - 2 hearing aid centers

5 People I tag:
1. Mary
2. Cassie
3. Sharon
4. Heather Harris-Torriente
5. Bethany

More modeling madness

So I told you that our friend Mary is using us to learn how to take family pictures (a.k.a. baby pictures). I totally love it because it gives us good family pics without all the effort of doing it ourselves. I really like the pics...I only wish Mary wouldn't be so hard on herself and just admit that they're good. I'm starting to believe the saying is true that baby will only smile for mom or dad. You can see that in these shots...
Scott holding Bryce in the air.
Bryce laughing as Dad throws him up again.
Mary trying to get a smile out of him. See what I mean? Of course this was near the end of the shoot and he was tired. I bet he was thinking "Aren't we done already?"

My husband is so cute! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Post-Halloween/Post-election Lamentations

Ok, so I'm a slacker. When I started this blog, I tried to post once or twice a week. Well it's been 2 weeks. I missed Halloween (although you got many cute shots of the pre-Halloween costume parties). I felt it was redundant to do it again on Halloween. Now I feel gipped because the only pic of me on Halloween is on Michayle's blog and I'm talking while she's taking the pic so I look like a dork! But I'm happy to finally make it onto her blog.

On another note, I am so glad the elections are over. Some turned out how I voted, others didn't. But I am grateful that I have the opportunity to vote and that we live in a democracy. I read something recently that said, "I'm grateful that I hear so many people complain about the government because it means we have freedom of speech." It's nice to be reminded of our basic freedoms that we overlook or take for granted many times.

Mr. Photo Opp

One of Scott's patients knitted this sweater for Bryce. This picture was taken a couple months ago, and I can already see that he is more of a boy now and less of a baby... :(














You wouldn't know it by looking at these shots, but he was really cranky that day, (teething...say no more). But as soon as I pulled out the camera, he was all smiles!

And on that farm he had a chicken...

This weekend was so fun! We went to the Annual East Valley Special Olympics Halloween Dance on Friday. For the record, it is the best halloween party/dance ever! (Sorry Heather, I promise yours is second) I used to work with Special Olympics and some of my best and funnest (I know it's not a word, but it fits) memories are with Special Olympics. I hope I can get our kids involved when they're older.

Here are some cute shots of Bryce as a chicken with mom and dad as farmers. (We love group costumes and can't wait to have enough kids to be the Village People!)
Lastly, here is a pic of getting ready earlier. I couldn't resist Bryce's signature smile!

Halloween Sneak Preview

Ah, the month of October...the time for one of my favorite fun-holidays - Halloween! If you don't know already, I was sheltered during my childhood and was not allowed to dress up for halloween after age 5 (tragic, I know). So I have done my best to make up for all those lost years by making a huge deal of halloween. Now that I'm a mother, it's even more fun.

This year, Bryce is 15 months old, and I thought it would be fun to dress him up as a superhero, but Scott said no-way. He said that Bryce will have many superhero years ahead of him, but this year, he wanted to dress him up in a costume that will embarass him later in life when he's dating girls, like a farm animal. Fortunately our cool cousins, Spencer and Sharon had this cute chicken costume that is a little big for Bryce, but it is so cute. So we're borrowing it and Bryce loves it. It is so perfect. Maybe Scott and I will be farmers to go with the package...

Bryce flapping his wings!