The Real Adult Life

Bear started his training in DeKalb on Monday. He left Sunday afternoon and will be back late Friday night. He says the training is intense because they squished 6 days worth of stuff into 5 days. Bear is literally busy all day and we get to talk late at night when he's finally back to the hotel. Man, there are perks to having a post-college, full-time adult job, but there are cons too. I can't imagine how lonely I would be without my parents and siblings right now. Okay, enough with the whining!

One of the great things about living in Nauvoo is the temple is RIGHT there. It was really hard to go to the temple in Virginia (especially with little kids). With the temple being 3.5 hours away, we either had to leave Lachlan with somebody ALL day, or bring a babysitter with us - which was hard to do on Ward/Stake temple day when everyone else wants to go to the Temple too. Now I just need to make sure I don't take it for granted.

I admit, it has been hard for me to get used to being a stay-at-home mom. I'm not dying to go back to school by any means, and I'm actually still pretty burnt out. When people ask me how I did it, I honestly don't know. I'm not a super woman. All I know is that I finished in the nick of time too - I seriously would have had to drop out with the twins. And although I hated having two very time-consuming things that needed my attention - motherhood and school (and they both always seemed to need attention at the same time), now I feel a little useless. I know how important motherhood is, and I'm glad I can give all of my attention to Lachlan now. And I know I need to stay home for all three kids soon. But I can't help but feel like half of my identity (a student) was taken away. Now, I'm just a mom. Real adult life starts now. After my family leaves for Korea, I won't have much socializing or adult conversation. The whole time that I've been married, I've been a student. First, I was a student. Then a student and wife. Then a student and mother. Now, just a mother. I have to keep readjusting my identity every year or so. So I know I'll get used to it eventually, but with non-stop school since I was a little girl, this is going to take some time to adjust to.

I DID NOT like the latest Downton Abbey episode. I know it wasn't graphic, and Julian Fellowes has his excuses "“The whole point of the way we do things on Downton is we don’t do them gratuitously. We are interested in exploring the resultant emotions and the effect these things have on people.” But at what point is he going to stop? He has to keep taking it up a notch. What point is too much?

The weather has warmed up in Nauvoo and our kitty survived. I'm kick-starting my Mary Kay business again and trying to reorganize everything.

A New Year

Happy New Year!

It has seriously been too cold outside! I keep wanting to go on walks outside, but I'm going to freeze to death if I do! After all the lecturing I gave people to workout while they're pregnant, I have done nothing. People keep asking me if I'm doubly sick with these twins, but luckily I'm not. I was definitely tired while I was pregnant with Lachlan, but I think I'm doubly tired this time instead of doubly sick. I'm sleeping 10 hours at night. I fall asleep between 9-10 pm. Which is weird for me because I usually stay up until midnight. I have the opposite of insomnia. If I sit down too long, I fall asleep. I get tired after little tasks. Sometimes I have to sit down while I'm brushing my teeth in the morning because I don't have enough energy to stand up. I know that working out will probably give me an energy boost, but it's really hard to motivate yourself when just thinking about getting ready for the day makes you want to go to sleep again.

I usually feel the most nauseous at night, right before I pass out on the couch while we're watching something. Every morning, I have to ask Bear how the movie or TV show ended. And Bear has to carry me to bed every night. I think the nausea is my body forcing me to go to sleep. Besides not wanting to stand up to brush my teeth, I wish it didn't have to be a daily thing because I almost throw up every time I brush. I try to stay away from the back of my throat, but brushing the front of my teeth irritates my gag reflex. I'm 11 weeks, almost to the second trimester. I just look a tiny bit bloated, but I'm not really showing yet. Which kind of surprises me. I thought with it being my second pregnancy and twins, that I would start showing earlier. At least by now. But who knows, I might pop tomorrow.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday, and Susanna Grace saw me making breakfast for myself and asked me if I was going to fast. I realized that I haven't fasted in almost 2 years because I was pregnant with Lachlan, and then I nursed him for a year. So her question made me think to myself, "because I just finished nursing, this should be my first month to start fasting again!" And I felt like a horrible person for being so out of the habit of fasting and not remembering myself. It took me a few minutes to remember that I'm pregnant again. This happened when I was pregnant with Lachlan too - sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant when I'm not feeling super sick, I don't have a huge bump, and I don't feel any baby kicking. That will change soon when I'm the size of a whale though!

Our good news is...Bear got hired at American Marketing! He'll be selling advertising to towns around us. He has to memorize a page-long script before his first day (on Jan. 13th), so he's a little stressed. He also has a week of training and a day long conference that the company has every year, so he'll be gone for 9 days. Luckily, I'll have my parents and siblings to help and we're very excited and grateful - especially because we'll have medical insurance for the twins. I haven't been to the doctor since we've moved, but now that we have the insurance and I'm doing my homework, I'll set up an appointment soon.

My family is really into watching Foyle's War at the moment, and of course Downton Abbey Season 4! Also, my younger siblings were supposed to go back to school today, but it was cancelled because of the low temperatures. The thermostat is set at 72, but Bear and I still had to sleep with a space heater in our room last night and there's ice on the inside of some of the windows. The kids have been blowing frozen bubbles outside and throwing boiling water out into the negative degree air and watching it disappear (turn to steam). I started reading about freezing to death on the internet last night, and it made me really happy that we have a warm house. I don't know if our kitty survived out there though :(

TWINS

Now my thoughts are racing all day. TWINS?!

While I had a very healthy pregnancy with Lachlan and he was born right on his due date, this pregnancy will be very different. I have anxiety, and I imagined every little thing that could go wrong while I was pregnant with Lachlan. He had a rather difficult delivery, but everything turned out the best that it could have, given the situation. I didn't have to have a C-section or use forceps. He has been a very healthy baby and either right on target or ahead of his milestones. I had great blood pressure, didn't have gestational diabetes, and worked out throughout my whole pregnancy.

I know that just because Lachlan was so healthy doesn't guarantee that every pregnancy after that would be. But it did give me a little more piece of mind than my first pregnancy. Of course there's always the chance of having a preemie, down syndrome, the cord around the neck (and the list goes on and on), but I felt a little more confident this second time around. I haven't taken as many pregnancy tests as last time and I felt like I could handle any surprise the doctor threw at me. I was wrong.

We're in the middle of finals (our last semester at SVU) so there's been a lot of stress tied up in that. Like I said earlier, I can't keep secrets, so we told parents right away that we're pregnant, but we decided to announce to the public after the first doctor's visit, like we did with Lachlan. And let me give a little more background. The doctor I went to with Lachlan only took a urine sample and asked if I was taking any medications. So basically they told me what I already knew through home pregnancy tests but it was nice to have it confirmed by a doctor. At that office, they didn't give ultrasounds until 13 weeks, but we were moving to California to work for the summer so we asked if we could get an ultrasound before then. They said no, and I assumed that it was just standard procedure everywhere. Well...our insurance didn't work in California...so I didn't go to the doctor. I had a lot of people scold me for this. Whatever. Things turned out fine. My mommy intuition told me it was okay. But I was able to find a 3-D ultrasound place while in California and at 20 weeks, I finally got to see Lachlan. It still hadn't seemed quite real up until the point that I got to see a picture of him and find out that he was a boy. When I was pregnant with Lachlan, I had a lot of dreams of twins and really hoped that he would be. So I was a little disappointed when there was just one baby on the screen. I wanted a boy and girl twin. But I got over that disappointment quickly once Lachlan was born and I found out how challenging just one baby can be.

Fast forward to 2 days ago, I just wanted to get the appointment over with because I assumed that they would only be taking my pee again. Bear was in a final and I had to take a friend to watch Lachlan in the waiting room. I switched to a different office because I had more friends go there and love it, and they had certified nurse midwives, which I wanted to go with this time around. Now I see why my friends liked this place better. I got an ultrasound at 8 weeks! I was so surprised but happy that my 45 minute drive to the office was going to be more worth my time. The ultrasound nurse was very kind and was trying to show me my ovaries at first (it all just looked like grey matter to me). But when she kept moving over my uterus, it looked weird. I could tell there was something in there, but it was hard to locate the baby. It must be because the baby is only the size of a kidney bean at this point and I might be seeing the yolk sac and placenta, I thought. She zoomed in, and I saw the baby's heartbeat fluttering away. I was instantly in love. But wait. Why is there another heartbeat above it? Is that the placenta pumping blood? Then the nurse said, "I have no other way to tell you this, but it's twins!" Then I saw it was two separate babies. Two little kidney beans. I literally said "Ohmygosh" 10 times in a row. Everyone asked if I cried, but  I didn't. My eyes just widened and I've been in shock ever since.

I had had a dream the night before the appointment that it was twins, but thought that it was just like when I was pregnant with Lachlan and didn't think anything of it. So I had to check that I wasn't dreaming while in the ultrasound room.

They're identical because they're in the same gestational sac (the black part in the picture - this couldn't happen if they were fraternal). This means either two girls or two boys because they split from the same zygote. And if they were in separate gestational sacs, there would literally be a line in the middle of my uterus and there would be two black sections. They share a placenta, so there's a little risk with that, but they are in separate amniotic sacs (which is a good thing). Otherwise, they could get tangled in each other's cords or compress each other's cord and restrict oxygen. Identical twins are 3 in 1,000 births. Funny that I was ready for depressing news from the doctor, but this news was the last thing from my mind. All twins are 33 in 1,000 births. The nurse said they'd been having a lot of twins lately.

So now we need a lot more baby gear, even if they're boys. Bear really wants them to be boys, I really want them to be girls. I'm afraid if having 3 boys that close in age, they'll get into all sorts of trouble and just egg each other on. Poor Lachlan has no idea what's coming. Now I'm having different anxiety - about not having the full 9 months to prepare for a baby and that they'll come super early and have all sorts of health problems and I'll have to leave them at the hospital and they'll be in incubators...or that I'll go full term and look like a whale. And how the heck am I going to breastfeed twins?! I feel as unsure as a new mom again. Twin pregnancies usually have to have more checkups and are more high risk and are more likely to end in C-sections (NO!) Hopefully they'll each have smaller heads than Lachlan and they'll both slip right out. (Fingers crossed)

Bear loved having Lachlan sleep on his chest (and still does) - I don't. It makes it so I can't breathe. So yesterday Bear's eyes lit up, and he said, "now I get to have two babies sleep on my chest at the same time!"

I thought life would slow down after graduation. Then we got pregnant. Now it's twins. Heavenly Father has a sense of humor sometimes. ("No sleep for you!")

Q&A:

Q: Do twins run in my family?
A: They haven't been able to prove that identical twins are hereditary. Scientists aren't even sure why the fertilized egg splits in the first place, and if it's because of the mom or dad. Fraternal twins are hereditary because hyper-ovulation is hereditary. Even though it hasn't been proven, my dad's younger sister has identical twin girls and my dad's dad has two different siblings that each have their own identical twins...this will be the 4th pair of identical twins in 3 generations...so it has to be genetic.

Q: Was this a surprise pregnancy?
A: We were thinking about getting pregnant again soon, but definitely after I had graduated. Right when we thought that - WHAM! The same thing happened with Lachlan. We were thinking about it, but a few more months in the future. So it was a little bit of a surprise, but not completely out of nowhere. The twin thing was a surprise for sure though.

Q: Are you going to go natural?
A: I would love to not have a C-section and to have a healthy birth again. But twins are more high-risk. So I'm going to be switched to a doctor, not a nurse-midwife. I'd love to try natural again, but if their heads are anything like Lachlan's were, I might give in an get an epidural again.

Q: Have you been feeling extra sick?
A: No, just super hungry. With Lachlan, nothing sounded good so I wasn't eating as much and lost a lot of weight. Now I just want to eat a little bit all day. If I don't eat, I feel sick. I've only thrown up twice - once because of the smell of giblets cooking the night before Thanksgiving, and once when I gagged myself on accident while brushing my teeth. I have felt a little nauseous here or there, but I can usually eat and it will go away. I haven't been bed-ridden because of it.

Q: Do you know if they're boys or girls yet?
A: No, because I'm only 8 weeks along. The earliest they can tell is 14, but usually wait until 20 weeks just to be sure.

Q: How far apart will your kids be?
A: If the twins are born right on their due date, 20 months exactly. But they'll probably be closer together than that now

Yosemite

We just had a quick day trip on August 18th. Yes, we realize Lachlan is way too big for the bjorn, but we needed something to hold him while we hiked. 

We hiked about a mile each way to the Grizzly Giant. The tree has been measured many times, most recently in 1990 by Wendell Flint. It has a volume of 34,005 cubic feet (962.9 m³), making it the 25th largest giant sequoia living today.

Look at the roots of this tree!

Resting at the Grizzly Giant

We made it!

Lachlan petting the horse that took us on a stagecoach ride.

Funny story, Bear's wallet fell out of his pocket while we were sitting in front of the Wawona Hotel. We had to call the hotel and have a staff member go look for it for us. And luckily, it was still there - we weren't even sure that was where he had dropped it. Yosemite was just under 2 hours from our apartment. Bear planned to go back and get his wallet within the next couple of days. But then we heard about the fire in Yosemite and started freaking out that we wouldn't be able to get back in! But we were coming in from the south side and that way was still open at the time. Lucky, lucky! I can't wait for more family vacations and day trips in the future.

CRAZY

Life has been a little too crazy lately. So I'll try to catch up.

1. We made as much money as we did last summer, so I'd call it a success. It wasn't fun moving coast to coast while I was pregnant, but it was way less fun with a baby. If we end up selling for Dewey again next year, we've made the decision that Lachlan and I live with my parents for a few weeks in May and June, while Bear sells really hard, and then we'll have the rest of the summer free. We haven't had a free summer since we got married. We plan to apply for the Nauvoo pageant this Fall. *fingers crossed*

2. We've made it through the first week of our last semester as undergrads. Bear has 15 credits, I only have 7. I'm retaking my Senior Paper, and that's basically what I'm poring myself into this semester. Even 12 credits was too much for me with a bebbe. So I only have one class in the morning Mon-Thurs, and no class on Friday. Bear has all 15 credits on Tues/Thurs, with no class on MWF. His eligibility is up for baseball (we're quite sad about that), but now he has time to work during the semester and he has applied a few different places. This semester is also crunch time. Bear will be going to as many job fairs as he can, and trying to narrow down what he wants to do after we graduate.

3. Lachlan was/is teething this whole trip. So as we're packing up, driving across the country, changing time zones, trying to move in and go back to school...all 3 of us have had no sleep. I honestly can't remember the last time I got 3 hours straight. I've tried Highland's teething tablets, I let him comfort nurse...his teeth broke through yesterday so I thought that was the end, and then there was last night...no end seems to be in sight. If I didn't have Bear, all my hair might have been pulled out by now.

4. But despite all of this craziness, we're excited to be back in the humidity and to have 1 pm church again. If we've made it this far, we can make it through this semester!

Our Life Lately

As if I didn't have a baby face enough, my cheek was swollen for almost a week after wisdom tooth surgery.

Lachlan + Summer = summer love. They have such a love-hate relationship. They almost act like siblings. Dewey babies forever.

He looked like a little farmer boy in his oshkosh overalls.

We went to Solvang for the first time and hung out with the Arntzes and Sniders! We rode the big family bikes around and went shopping in the boutiques.

This boy can't get enough seaweed.

Lachlan got his first freshly picked moccasins! I love that he can't take them off of his feet.

My little baseball boy

We went to the Monterey aquarium! I didn't plan it, but Lachlan has whales on his outfit.

We have fun, hospitable in-laws who got us into the aquarium for free. This is right as we were about to leave. Can you tell the kids were done?

My niece Opal. I love her gut. She's only 4 months old and weighs 4 pounds more than Lachlan

We made pizza at Nate and Izzy's. (Please don't judge my  "I just woke up from a Sunday nap hair")

Do you believe that these cousins are 4-1/2 months apart?

Still working out 6 times a week! Only 1 week left of Insanity!!! Then I'm going to start T25

I have arranged for Lachlan and Summer to be married.

This Pad Thai was to die for. And they put into a cool call. I can't get enough Asian food.

Chicago, America

Part of my Christmas present from my parents was going to Chicago a week before Christmas! We took Amtrax from Macomb to Chicago, and walked around the city all day. We pictures in front of The Bean. The weather was perfect! Sunny, no wind, and in the 50's. 

We walked all the way down Michigan Ave to go to the Cheesecake Factory. I think that and Olive Garden are my favorite restaurants. Oh, and Wasabi's in Roanoke. I just like food a little but too much. We went to the American Girl store, the Hershey's and Ghiradelhi stores, lots of fun clothing stores, and of course Tiffany's! I hadn't been in one since we lived in Tokyo. But my favorite was the Anthropologie store. They had so many sales that they didn't have online! Because they were half off, we stocked up on THESE and THESE for the guys and girls in our lives that we needed to buy presents for. And my mom bought the cutest apron! 
We also got to go with Laura and Constance Skog, who knew their way around the city. The whole time, we kept saying "Chicago, America" like Tevye and Lazar Wolf do at the end of The Fiddler on the Roof movie. It will always be a good memory to me. We didn't go to any shows or museums, but I still had a ton of fun! I slept the whole train ride there and back. The buildings were so beautiful! And once I got back to school, the first day of my American History class started with the Chicago World Fair. And it made it that much more real in my head.

On another note, there was a window display for A Christmas Story: The Musical!. Look at the leg lamp! Now, that would be an interesting show :)

I want to go back! Maybe this time with Bear - he was bummed that it was a girls day. He really wanted to go.

Excited

Sorry, these are old pictures from Thanksgiving break in South Carolina on Myrtle Beach. It was over 70 degrees that day and the sand was white...I was in heaven. The Price family are going to be staying on this same beach for Christmas 2012. I'm so excited! I'm also excited for baseball season and to move out of our current apartment! And to stop reading about the depressing Holocaust!


But I got a handsome husband ♥  

Life is Beautiful

So life is beautiful but crazy. But mostly beautiful. It's always hard for me to get into the swing of things. I tend to get overwhelmed and have melt-downs...which broke one of my resolutions. So I decided the smart thing to do is not set a goal to completely stop them, but to figure out why I melt down first and go from there. I expect too much out of myself and compare myself with other people to no end. I get into the same cycle over and over again. I push myself too far. 

Which is when I need to step back and see how beautiful life really is. 2-3 days out of my week might be crazy busy, money might be tight right now, I may not love our living situation, I might be drowning in homework, and I might miss my family, BUT I still have 4-5 days of peace, I'm lucky to have a job, a hard-working husband, have the opportunity to go to an expensive school for free, I do have a place to live and we aren't starving on the streets, and I have a family alive and well that loves me. I have good friends that keep me happy. 

Even though my phone broke this week, a new one came in the mail the next day, even though ice skating was too full in Roanoke we were able to go to Chik-fil-a etc etc. I for one don't believe in chanting "I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy" and forcing positive thoughts or a smile while still being bitter on the inside. Sometimes we need to be sad and let it out. But I think it helps to step back subjectively and say "hey, most of the troubles in my life are in my head" and start being happy from there. 

I'm learning so much this semester because all of my classes are ones that I'm really interested in. Right now we're deciding if we want to do internships or go work in California again this summer, but I'm not going to stress about it. And I'm going to start taking more pictures. I promise.

Exercise

So I have an adult body now with a slowing metabolism. I tried to workout during the summer, but I couldn't get a gym and the arid desert in California made it not fun to run in. Then I kept using the excuse of being too busy with school to work out. But like I said before, it's all about priorities. So I've been working out 5 to 6 times a week since the week before Thanksgiving. There's a free gym at school and I need to use it when I can! But since I've been at my parents' house, I've been using their Kinect fitness and Zumba. I love that it tells me that I'm not  doing it right and so I get a much better work out. I've never worked out this hard in my life. And the fact that I did it through Christmastime is a big thing for me. So I really feel like I can continue the habit on into this new year. And I really do look like the bottom half of the picture when I do Zumba. I know so because Mia, Noah, and Grace all started laughing at me. :( But I can do it! Priorities!

We're leaving to go back to school tomorrow. It will be a nice, all-day-long drive. With Bustard Kitty. School starts Thursday. This break has been exactly what I needed. I got enough relaxing time with my family. It's been 3 weeks! Bring on school. I'm ready.

It was also my aunt Nancy's last chemo today. I'm really proud of her! You can read about her story HERE.

Labor Day Week

Another college-ful weeks has gone by.

 

For Labor Day, Bear had to be in the city parade to represent the school through the baseball team. I went and watched him. And he didn't even notice me. Baha. Anyways, can you tell how pretty it is here just by the picture above? I keep meaning to take pictures of how gorgeous the Blue Ridge mountains are, but I keep forgetting my camera. There will be pictures soon, I promise. We went out to a Chinese place that supposedly had Japanese food, but...not really. It just reminded me why I hate Chinese food so much. And I feel like the only person on the planet who feels so. We watched Insidious that night. And I was scared out of my pants. Bear thought it was a stupid plot. But I kept seeing the demon and the old lady all night. 

 

It's nice to be in a family ward again. And to actually feel like we're not just visiting. To have lots of little kids in the ward, and lots of young, friendly married couples too...I feel better. The Relief Society presidency came to see me along with the Ward Mission Leader. This ward is on top of things. There was a fun Relief Society activity of getting to know each other. It was definitely a good idea. Now I get to take organ lessons from someone in the ward too! Oh, and another exciting thing: I get to be part of the Women's Society at the school because I'm married now! I feel quite big.

 

I'm settling into my major more. I was afraid that I would graduate in December 2013, but I just went to the Registrar and found out I'm right on track to graduate April 2013! 3 years instead of 3 1/2 or 4! So just 2 more years of school, and I don't even have to take summer classes! I'm quite excited. Taking 19 credits this semester paid off after all (even if most of the classes were just ones I wanted to take, and didn't have anything to do with my major). I just need to take 2-3 upper division History classes for the next 3 semesters, take a science class I was supposed to take as a Freshman, and take 2 more exercise classes, and 2 easy Music classes for my minor. I got to change advisors and everything. It feels so official now. 

 

We got invited over to some one's house for dinner from the ward this week. I had a lot of fun. Like I said, we have a friendly ward. I love it.

 

I'm not drowning in homework, mostly because I'm not working and my weekends are free. It gives me the chance to recuperate. I feel bad, because I feel like I should be making dinner every night, but that doesn't happen with all my classes and homework. But I'm working hard to cook on the weekends. And it makes me happy. I feel like I can actually cook now. I will post another good recipe for Curried Honey Mustard Chicken soon.

 

Me and Bear went to the opening night of SVU's The Wizard of Oz. They didn't change the script at all, but kept spoofing themselves. It was very clever and audiencewas laughing and having fun. The best part was, there were only 8 or 9 actors in the whole show. They were some crazy costume changes. It was definitely worth seeing. We have a talented theater program here.

 

I've started to workout a little this weekend, and my body is happy, even from that little bit. The world just needs to be rid of soda so that I'm not tempted. But I haven't had it in awhile, and I'm quite proud of myself. And I just realized that I've used the word "quite" too many times in this post.

 

We tried to go to the football game Saturday, but Bear slept too long. So we just went to downtown Lexington to go to the Museum of Military Memorabilia. It's run by a little old lady  whose British husband opened it. Her husband has passed away, but he served in WWII, and there were some very old things, including from the Revolutionary War. I love little old ladies that love history. Because that's exactly what I'm going to be like when I grow up. And I learned something new. Japanese families wrote prayers on a big piece of fabric, and the soldier would fold it up inside his uniform. When the soldier died, he was supposed to be wrapped in the flag (although it didn't really happen all the time). And there was an actual one at the museum. I'm a history nut. Gah. It was mostly British military items, but also lots of American, and some Asian and other European stuffs too.

 

Oh, and having Andrew and Brandy S. over for dinner and having a Ligretto/Ticket to Ride game with them completed my week. I hope yours was fun too.

Longest Road Trip Ever

I haven't been blogging because we're on our long trip from California to Virginia - which I wouldn't recommend to anybody unless there is no other option. There have been a few adventures:

1. The truck seats don't recline and there's no AC so we melt into the leather seats.
2. I officially hate the desert, especially between California and St. George, UT.
3. The GPS is my new best friend
4. Right after we walked into my grandma's house in Fillmore to stay the first night, she got a call from my aunt saying she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Nancy is only 35 years old, with 4 kids, ages 8 months-11 years old. She was still nursing the baby. It was not the news my grandma wanted to hear because two years in a row, her husband and daughter-in-law were diagnosed with cancer on her birthday. My grandma is a breast cancer survivor too. It was good that me, Tash, and Bear were there with her.

5. I got to spend time with Tashi and take her college shopping for BYU.

6. I got to see both of my great grandmas Verna Challis and Geneal Smith (ages 87 and 90) while in Utah. I love them!

7. I got to stay at John and Traci (my aunt and uncle)'s house in Grantsville. Traci did my hair as my wedding gift.

8. We get on the road and start having a sputtering engine. The oil was empty and we accidentally overfilled it, which made it still sputter of course. We had to keep stopping. But we finally fixed the problem and finally got to Amber's house late Wednesday night. It was good to meet her new husband and catch up because I wasn't able to go to her wedding.

9. We finally made it alive to Nauvoo and I was finally in my momma's and the babies' arms.

10. I keep thinking that Tashi's going to come home from work or school. But then I remember she's at BYU and I get sad on the inside.

11. I'm getting to eat my favorite foods and play Ticket to Ride to my heart;s content. I love my mommy.

12. Our Bustard kitty is so big now and I can't wait to take him back to Virginia with us.

13. I'm sad that I missed my grandma and grandpa Stout because of our truck troubles.

We take off early tomorrow morning (Sunday) because class starts Monday. Crazy life.

Homesick

I'm homesick. I want to be here right now.

I don't know if I can wait another week.

I Miss You

I don't have much to say. Except me and Bear's financial aid is finally done for school (and between my Marriott scholarship and Pell Grant, I don't have to pay any tuition. In fact, the school owes me money). And I'm not going to have to pay for the expensive dorms or expensive food plan. Blegh. So right now we're narrowing down our choices for an apartment. You are more than welcome to come stay with us by the way. It might be a one bedroom place and kind of squishy, but we like people. Come visit beautiful Virginia with us.

And I really really miss people. I had a meltdown on Sunday about it. I'm such a people person and I get so attached. So please be in my life.

♫ Where are you now?

Cause I´m thinking of you
You showed me how
How to live like I do
If it wasn´t for you

I would never be who I am ♫

- Where Are You Now by Honor Society

I'm glad that I have a Bear to keep me happy.

Monday Night

Today I made chicken spaghetti. It is one of my family's favorites. This time I made it with cream of chicken instead of mushroom for the first time because Brandon doesn't like mushrooms, but I think I like the mushroom taste better. Make sure you cut up the chicken pretty small. Unless you like it big. It's not complicated and quite delicious.

2~3 chicken breasts (halves), cooked and diced
1 can cream of mushroom (or cream of chicken)
1 can chicken broth
1 8 oz block cream cheese
1/4 C. shredded Parmesan cheese

Combine and bring to simmer.

I also gave the Family Home Evenging lesson. It was about courage, and at the very end I realized Marek (4) didn't know what I meant and I had to tell him it was the same thing as being brave. Fail on my part. Bah.

I have this problem where after I post a post, I find other information later on it that I wish I could've added or other thoughts come to my mind. So about Fascinating Womanhood, it's a long and deep read that you can't breeze through (if you do, you won't get anything out of it). I know that a lot of people have to reread a few times. And about the last post about respecting parents, I don't want to get all emotional and use the overdone "I have the best parents in the whole world!", but I really do love and respect my parents. I had a few complaints as a teenager, but now I can see I would've handled the situation the same if I had been the parent. They make me happy and give me meaningful advice. So there. You better be reading this before or after family home evening. Just saying.

4th of July

So I made these 4th of July sugar cookies from Martha Stewart. I ran out of gel though and so I couldn't make all the cookies the same design. I know it's late for the 4th of July, but if you want, the recipe is in the post below this. You could do it for Halloween or Christmas or any color just for fun.

17 minutes was too little, 19 minutes was a little too much for mine. Be careful.

And I made my mom's green tomato salsa which I absolutely love. There's a Mexican grocery store nearby with super super cheap produce so it wasn't that expensive to make. So I used green tomatillos instead of unripe tomatoes but it worked out fine. And because I wasn't canning it, I cut the recipe in half. Make sure you have a huge pot, because it does boil down, but all the cut up vegetables take up a lot of room. I wish I had read the comments on the recipe at the bottom of the page...or asked my mom for more advice. Because you definitely need to cut the salt in half (or quarter it if you're halving the recipe), and not as much vinegar. So it was way too salty for me. I added sugar which helped a little, but it was too salty for some people. Lots of people said it was fine. But I wasn't satisfied. Oh well. I know for next time. Don't make my mistake. If you want the recipe, click HERE.

Bear started the day off with playing baseball with Andrew. It was the first time he got to play ball since nationals, in the middle of May. He did have to work half the day, but did get 2 sales. I didn't think anyone would be interested on the 4th. Life is full of surprises.

We went to a BBQ at a ward member's house. They have an adopted little girl and boy and they reminded me a lot of my own family. Two white blonde kids close in age and two firecracker brown kids :) We finished the day off with city fireworks. At the end of the day, my body was exhausted but I couldn't turn my brain off and had to talk poor Bear's ear off. I hope you all had a good holiday with friends, family, and food. Sometimes bbq's and lots of food don't feel like celebrating a holiday to me. I need to come up with my own traditions for my future family (no I'm not hinting anything).

Oh, and it was our one month anniversary. Just saying ♥

Los Angeles Temple

I went to the Los Angeles Temple with the Relief Society sisters in my new ward on Thursday morning. It was the first time I'd been to this temple and it was a wonderful experience. It's huge and gorgeous! Definitely before "mini temples". It was kind of weird not having Bear there but it was a great opportunity to go. I want to make a goal of going to the temple once a month, which will be tricky because Bear works so much and then we're pretty far from the Washington D.C. Temple at school too. But I'm determined. I miss my teenage days of hopping on the train on a random night to go to the Tokyo Temple, or walking down the street to the Nauvoo Temple. The temple is a lovely grand place. We should all go. Because it makes people happy. I'm happy that I'm sealed to my family forever. It's a good feeling, especially now as my grandpa passed away recently. It's a learning experience every time I go. Why is that we take them for granted when they're right next to us? Temples. Temples. Temples. I love them.

The paragraph above has no structure because the temple makes a million emotions and thoughts run through my head. To sum it up, it was worth getting married in the temple. In my grandma's dress. (We've almost been married for a month! Gah)

All Grown Up

Poor Bear. During his first week of work he was exhausted and would basically sleep his afternoon work break away. By Sunday, he was so fatigued, he wasn't functioning at church and he told me he had never been that tired - except after the first week of his mission.

Bear doesn't mind the sun and heat. This is the perfect temperature for him. But all the walking and the sun do wear you down eventually. He's been working so hard. But he's made his quota for the month, and he's doing very well for it being his first 2 weeks of his first summer working for Dewey. I'm proud of him. Even though he gets frustrated with himself.

Well I officially joined bank accounts with Bear, and got my own debit card. They automatically made me one with the same design as his - the SF Giants. Oh well. It could be worse. Obviously we didn't need to consolidate, but at this point 2 bank accounts sounds to complicated for me.

And..I cut Bear's hair for the first time. I didn't have any men's hair cutting shears, but he just needed a little trim. I'd never done anything like that before, but I watched a Youtube video and went to work. It turned out fine. (The picture above is before the trim). Luckily, he has curl to his hair, so even if my trimming is a little off, you totally can't tell.

And finally...I officially changed my last name. The social security office is right down the street and was surprisingly painless. It was free, I got to keep my old social security number (which I didn't know beforehand), and all I needed was my driver's license and wedding license. I didn't even need to wait for my parents to send me my birth certificate. And then we were stressed out, because we had been keeping the marriage license safe, but when we pulled it out the day of, we realized the temple took the certified one and we only had the one from the temple. The guy didn't say anything about it. Considering everything else in getting married and settling down is so expensive and stressful...it was nice I kept my middle name instead of my maiden name. Gah I'm crying about it right now. I'm so happy to be a Price now, but at the same time it's hard to let go of my name. I hate being conflicted.

But I officially kind of feel like an adult now.

Father's Day 2011

I would just like to tell my dad how much I love him. I wasn't able to spend Father's Day with him. I even forgot to send him a card.

But me and Tashi did go in on buying him a white iPhone 4.

I'm jealous. Well, maybe not because paying for a data plan doens't sound like too much fun right now haha

But anways, it felt nice to buy him something that he actually wanted (and I didn't buy him TOMS! I am a little original). It's just sad that I onlt called him, because it's the first Father's Day I didn't spend with him. I wanted to Skype with him but then we realized our hand-me-down ghetto laptop doesn't have a webcam or microphone. Poo.

At least I was able to call him, but like my dad said, a long time ago a Father's Day call was a big deal, but now I call my family a few times a week anyways. I love him and miss him. He gave me lots of good financial and marital advice before I got married and I plan to apply it. He's helped many businessmen become very successful with his advice. I know he loves me and my mom. I'm thankful my parents are still married and that they set a good example of a happy marriage for me.

I hope I can become as "love-birdy" as them someday. I hope I can make my kids as happy as he made me one day. He's a good, hard-working dad, like Bear. I'm proud to talk about him. I'm proud to call him my father.

Love you, daddy schmoopsie!

If you want to see a blog post back from March 2007 about my dad with some cute pictures and "Why a Daughter Needs a Dad", click HERE
And if you want to go to his blog, click HERE

I bought Gracie these pink sparkle TOMS for her birthday. So now eberyone in my family has a pair of TOMS except my dad and Bear. But quite frankly, I think they're kinf of un-manly. I need to find some dress shoes for Bear. Anybody have suggestions?

I love TOMS!!!!!!!! The ivory glitter TOMS are back in stock. Those are the ones I originally wanted. It's so tempting...but fixing Tercel was a little more expensive than we thought. Ah, newlywed finances. I love it.

Does anybody else own TOMS? Which are your favorite?