Pregnancy

Yes folks, I am pregnant. I don't know for sure how far along I am, my sister say, according to a calendar her midwife gave her, that I am due sometime in July, but we'll see. My first appointment is tomorrow with a nurse.

So far, I have had nausea just about everyday all day, though no actual toilet worshiping yet. But today was a new twist- heartburn. I have never had it before, but I understand now why they have all those heartburn commercials. I should go get some Tums. But I think the nausea is harder to deal with, it makes me not want to do anything at all.

Oh, and none of my jeans fit me anymore, although my work slacks all still fit just fine. My jeans fit me tighter to begin with anyway. And I couldn't eat as much for Thanksgiving without feeling sick, but in a different way than when you normally feel like you ate to much. It was weird.

Mike and I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday and bought me goodies to keep in my desk at work so I wouldn't be tempted by my neighbors chocolate when I needed to eat something. We got dried apricots, cheez-its, goldfish, animal crackers, craisins, unsalted peanuts, and we had saltines at home. They have helped stave off the worst of the nausea.

I am excited though, despite all the misery. I am going to have a baby!

Zero Thought

I have been reading Randy Cassingham for several years now, he sends out a "true news" email once a week, and I've been getting really upset reading about the Zero Tolerance trend in both schools and everyday life. Well, something happened recently to make me really annoyed.

One of my co-workers has a son in sixth grade, who he describes as "the biggest nerd in school." Apparently he and some of his friends were playing war at recess, using their pens as guns. The class bully complained to the teacher that he felt threatened, the boys were sent to the principal's office, and my co-worker was called to come talk to the principal.

When he got there, the principal spoke to him separate from his son, explaining what had happened, and the school's policy in these matters. He was going to be suspended for two days. The principal was shocked at their behavior and wondered aloud why they wanted to play war to begin with. As we were all being told this story at work, we all said, "Because they are boys!?"

My co-worker is a former Marine, and was not very impressed with the principal's attitude. He went with her to see his son, who was visibly frightened, afraid that his father was going to come down on him, but he simply told him, "well, looks like you get a couple of days to play your Xbox." The principal was furious and asked him if he didn't understand the seriousness of the offense. He just responded, "It's your policy, not mine," and went on to say that the kid had been bullying his son for months, and nothing had come of it, but a bunch of boys playing war together rates a suspension? So he just took his son home and treated it like a very long weekend since he was suspended Friday and Monday.

Now, to top it all off, the day before his son was able to go back to school, they got an official letter from the school about the suspension. In the letter, they stated that the boys were playing in a "non-threatening manner."

Excuse me? Non-threatening? I thought they suspended him because someone felt threatened!

I couldn't help but think about the Blackrock Clan, or the BRC as the boys in my church called it when I was a teenager. They used to go off into the mountains to a campsite they had which they called Vietnam, or 'Nam or something, I don't remember for sure, and play war games. Noone ever got seriously injured as far as I know, I'm sure there were scratches and bruises, but it was just recreation for them, and none of them grew up to be terrorists. One of them ended up giving his life for our country in Iraq. I wonder, if that were to happen today, if those boys would be considered delinquents of some kind, and get into trouble?

Some of my other co-workers started sharing stories of stupid things from their schools. One of them mentioned that children aren't allowed to play tag at her child's school, because they might trip and hurt themselves. But dodgeball is perfectly fine, and I can remember some nasty dodgeball games.

Well, that's my rant for the month. Tata for now!

A year in the life. . .

As of today, I have been working at my "new" job for a year. This is a milestone in many ways. I have been in Missouri a year, I have been working my first real job for a year, and I can say that I did not live with Liz and Bruce for forever! Yay!

And crazy things have happened in the last year. When I started this job, I was nervous in so many ways. I didn't know how I'd do working a real full-time job, I didn't have any friends at the time, I was afraid I would get complacent and live with relatives for a really long time (Just until I pay my car off. . . my student loans. . . finish saving for retirement. . . etc. I get too comfortable sometimes.) But things just kinda came together. Who woulda thunk a year ago that I'd meet a guy and get married after six months together? Who'da thunk I'd fit so well at my job? Who'da thunk I'd be a Sunbeam teacher (yes, that's our new calling as the ward's newlyweds), much less a RS president and first counselor in the span of less than a year? And who'da thunk I'd be so happy in Missouri, or misery as people keep telling me it should be called. I can honestly say, that despite the trials, and stress of the last few months, I am content.

I love you Mike!

Wedding Plans

Mike made our invitation, I love it!


Anywho, wedding plans are going very well. My dress should be done tomorrow, we are ordering the cake tomorrow, my hall closet is full of decorations and gifts, Mike bought a new suit last week, we have the temple and church building reserved, my bouquet is finished, and I have spent lots of money. I've actually saved a lot, because Mike found out Hobby Lobby was having a half of sale on flowers and wedding stuff that I needed to buy anyway. Also, we happened to go shopping on days when other stores were having sales that saved us a ton of money.

We found an apartment, and I have already moved in. Mike will start moving his stuff in soon. We have almost all the furniture we need, we just need some appliances, including a dryer, and we need to fix the washer. And I got released from from my calling as RS president last week. We have only a few weeks left, and things are going to slow down some, since almost everything is done. I'm somewhat relieved that I won't be so stressed, but at the same time, I should maybe have spread things out better. I stayed home today because I wasn't feeling well, mostly exhaustion I think. But like I said, it is getting better.

Engagement

So I am getting married! August 7th, in the St. Louis temple! It's all kind of crazy and a bit unexpected. I should put the story here, with some pictures of the ring, since people have asked for it.

It's funny, because back in January, I went to the wedding of a young girl in my branch, and got depressed by it. Something about it really got to me, and I had to get a blessing of comfort from my branch president. The blessing worked wonders though, and I went on with my life as normal.

I moved into my grandparents house in mid-January to house-sit for them, as they had just bought a home in Independence and fixed it up. They weren't planning on moving there until May, and wanted someone in it, keeping an eye on things. So I moved in, and in February, a friend of mine, Tara Miller, moved in with me. Early that month, near Ground-hog day, I went to a family home evening activity with the branch where we played games in groups. I ended up in a group with Michael Blake. I had known him ever since I had moved out to Missouri, he had three siblings in the branch, and his family was one of those families everyone knows and looks up to. I had never really thought about Mike as anything other than a nice guy, partly because he had been dating someone when I first moved there.

We had a really fun time that night, we talked a lot and joked. I left, thinking how nice he was. He started chatting with me a bit on Facebook after that, and then I decided to have a party for Valentine's day. I called it Anti-Valentines, and invited the single people in the branch. I had tried once before to have a party, but it had flopped, noone came, so I hoped this would go better. Mike got their first with his brother Jeff, and I showed them around while we waited for everyone else to show. He enjoyed my books and my computer.

A handful of people showed up, and we had a really fun night. By the time it was over, Mike and I were talking about everything. When he left, my roommate asked me, and I quote, "Is he macking on you?"

Anyway, we spent the next week chatting on Facebook everyday, and then, on Thursday, he tagged me in this.

I was surprised! I hadn't been asked out in a long time! In fact, it took the message he sent me at the same time to convince me that he really meant to ask me out. I was also pretty sick at the time, but determined to go anyway. So I told him I'd go.

The date was lots of fun, we went to eat and to a movie, and when he dropped me off, he sad he'd like to go out with me again. I said for sure!

Over the next week, he began texting me, as well as chatting with me online. I had to upgrade my text plan twice by the time we became serious. As he kept texting me and talking to me, I got the feeling that he was planning on asking me out for the next weekend, but I had promised my aunt and uncle I'd watch their kids. So, I decided, with some prodding from Uncle Bruce, to ask him to come help me with the kids. I was realy nervous, who asks a guy out to babysit! But it went really well. In fact, he said it was the best date he had ever been on, and still is, last I checked.
After that, things really took off. The next week we spent almost everyday together, and continued to do so for the next couple of months. He started talking about marriage pretty quickly, although he made silly jokes for the most part at first. He kissed me for the first time on my birthday, May 7th.

About the middle of May, Mike went out of town for a school trip. He left me a bag of goodies for while he was gone with a different trip. The day before I went out of town, I found this in my box of Goldfish.




I was at work, so I called Liz and had her check the other boxes. This is what the collection held.
The deck of cards explained it was a riddle I needed to solve. It took me about five seconds once I reallized what everything was: "Wheel u Mary Me?"

I went out of town the next morning, and while I was gone, Lizzie delivered my answer, two eyes and Captain Crunch (Aye, Aye Captain!) When I got back, Mike picked me up at the airport with this:







He asked me officially, down on both knees actually. So we were engaged. I love my ring! And I love my Mike!

Consequences

I've been thinking about something a lot lately, and venting a bit to my fiance, (I'm engaged by the way!) Anyway, I've noticed a lot of lately people trying to avoid the consequences of their actions. One of the basic things I learned as a child, is that every action has consequences, whether good or bad, and we need to learn to accept them. We also don't get to choose the consequences, other than that we generally know what they are before we make the our decisions. We generally know the possible consequences of our decisions.

For example, a girl who decides to have sex has to know that a possible consequence of her action is pregnancy, even if she uses protection. I recently went to my doctor, since I am getting married, and she gave me a paper with different methods of birth control, and something I noticed is that not one of them was 100% effective in preventing pregnancy. The closest it came was 99%. So it seems to me, that any girl should be aware that if she is having sex, the possibility is there that she might get pregnant.

Now along with this, comes abortion. Abortion is nothing more than the attempt to avoid the consequences of your actions. Oh, there is the occasional case of rape that results in pregnancy, but I doubt that a significant percentage of abortions performed are for these cases. So generally, it is a selfish attempt to avoid the consequences of choices you have already made. A co-worker of mine the other day asked me if I don't believe in choice, and I told her sure, I'm pro-choice, in that I believe you already made your choice, when you chose to have sex. I think the whole pro-choice thing is another part of the delusion that we don't have enough self-control to not indulge in premarital sex, which I find insulting. I am 28 years old, and I have never been with a man, by choice. And I know other women my same age, or close to it, who have made the same choice. We chose to control our actions, and therefore have more control of our lives.

But I didn't mean for this to become a lecture on chastity and morality, so I will move on. Another prime example of people trying to avoid the consequences of their actions, is the economic crisis we are in now. This was not an accident. It was not caused by the government. It was caused by people being greedy. Companies that are largely involved in keeping the economy stable got themselves deeply in debt because of greed. To much was bought on credit, and credit is not real. Eventually, it had to come tumbling down, and it did.

This shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. A realtor I know explained to me that she saw it coming, as did many of her colleagues. Banks were giving out mortgages as if they were candy. Credit was entirely too easy to obtain. I was a student at BYU and had a couple of credit cards I had gotten over the years, and when I decided to buy a car, I looked into my credit in preparation. I hadn't paid much attention to my credit cards, since I very rarely used them, but as I checked it, I realized that the limit on my oldest credit card, the one I hadden gotten through my bank right after my mission, was $15,000! And I was a college student, with a net income of MAYBE $500 a month. What on earth were they thinking at that bank? They knew how much I made, my work made direct deposits to my account. What made them think I could possibly afford to make payments on that kind of credit if I was foolish enough to use it?

And so now that the Piper has come calling, no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions. They want the government to buy them out, while at the same time blaming the government for not regulating their spending and excesses. As if they should not be responsible for controlling their own money! Are they children, playing with all this money and power? And hasn't so much of the energy of politics been poured into keeping the government out of business? Even a few years back, when people messed up big, they took responsibility for it. But now, all these CEO's are blaming everyone but themselves for having brought down old companies.

Ok, I feel like I have vented a bit too much, but this is something that has bothered me for several months now. I'll just say I am grateful for the church teaching us to stay out of debt as much as possible, and grateful that I am in as good a position financially as I am right now, and pray that my family won't be to terribly affected.

A strange new world

So, I was driving home from my branch president's house yesterday and I noticed something unusual. A bunch of cop cars were heading towards this little research hospital near the freeway exit I was trying to get on (yay for crazy traffic.) I looked to see what was going on, and I saw a little red car driving all over the field, and the cops were trying to cut it off. I'm afraid I started laughing somewhat hysterically, I had never seen anything like that before. After a minute I couldn't see where it had got to, so I figured they had got him.

The light turned green and I turned on to the freeway. A minute later, while I was still on the ramp, I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw a red car coming up behind me. I looked again and realized that it was the same car the cops had been chasing. I pulled over to the side of the road so he wouldn't hit me, and watched all the cop cars go speeding by, and then headed off again. Two minutes later, I had to stop because the car had hit another car and had to stop, all the cop cars were crowded together, and they were dragging the guy out and cuffing him. I was stuck there for only about 5 minutes before they let us past, and I was laughing the whole time. Again, somewhat hysterical. So weird, I have never seen anything like that before. Much different here than in Utah/Idaho, that kind of thing apparently happens all the time here.

Can't we all just get along?

I was looking at the news, and I saw some article about how some rapper helped take down a guy on a place who was trying to open a door and claiming he had a bomb. It was a nice story for once, I thought. Then I get to the comments.

Apparently, some guy had made a comment about what had happened that was slightly incorrect or something, I don't know for sure because by the time I got to it, it had been deleted. But the comments made afterwards were awful! And they just kept going! At the time I write this, there were 1823 comments (for an article posted today!), and while I did not read everyone of them, of course, as I skipped through to get to the last page, since I was curious, (and there were 91 pages altogether), as I skimmed, most of them referred back to this comment the first guy made. And some of them were very hateful! Racial epithets, swearing (although the swear words were bleeped out with "profanity"), attacking the guys culture (which, how do they know for sure what his culture is?), intelligence, even manhood. Since when is this ok? Is it because it is so anonymous? Not cool! Why do we have to attack those we disagree with? Can't we agree to disagree, or at least disagree with decorum?

New Years Eve

For New Year's Eve, my single's branch hosted a dance for all the singles in the area. It was fun! The night before, Lizzy, Sara and I went shopping for some new clothes for the dance. We got a skirt that I absolutely adore, and a shirt Lizzy picked out that she loved. It grew on me after awhile, I though it was weird at first.

Sara cracked me up, she kept saying, "Oh the boys will be throwing themselves at you!" everytime we found a new shirt for me to try on. To which I replied, "That is the point of this shopping trip." She didn't quite get that I was being sarcastic. And slightly embarrassed, because she talks loud when she is excited.

Anyway, here are some pictures of me in my outfit with my hair up. Lizzy did the hair, she very much enjoyed herself.

Happy New Year all!