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

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!

Bonfires, Corn Mazes, and Hayrides

Sometimes papers, tests, and projects almost push me overboard, but I'm doing well in school. It's been hard to stay on top of though. Luckily, I have a Bear to love me and keep me motivated. That is the most delicious pumpkin pie ice cream above in Lexington. It makes me very happy.
 
Bear pretends to hate the cat, but I keep finding them together. He's just such a fun kitty to hold and cuddle. He really is a dog. 

We were lame and didn't go to the homecoming dance this year. We had planned a double date to go on a hayride and to a corn maze, and finally the dance, but Bear had a scrimmage with another school that day, the only one before the season and was going to take up the whole day. I was supposed to sing in the women's choir for the homecoming concert on Friday night, so it looked like we weren't going to be able to do anything fun that weekend.
 
But the boys surprised us and planned a bonfire up at Panther Falls for us. I love surprises!  
And we got to go to the hayride and corn mazelast weekend, as you can tell from the pictures below. The weather was perfect on both Saturdays, so it really worked out. I even got some sun at Bear's scrimmage (which I happened to not take pictures of him playing).
 
I got an A on my Intro to Music History midterm. I worked hard on that baby so I'm proud of myself. I thought I knew music, but it's teaching me so much. I'm learning to pull words out of my head for papers or presentations easier now.
  
I have also learned recently to make sure you bought a zucchini instead of a cucumber, and then after you find out it's a cucumber...don't try and bake with it! Bear wouldn't even eat it, and that's saying something...the adventures of a beginner cook.  
I am in love with Virginia in the Fall. I wouldn't give it up for anything. The view above is from our hayride. Love, love. And we're also a few days past the half-way mark of the semester. I feel like a weeny because I don't have a legitimate job or play any sports, but my schedule is really wearing me down this semester. So I'm very grateful and looking forward to my easy next semester. And I'm getting so excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas to be with family again.
  
Last weekend was what I really needed. I was able to catch up on sleep and go have fun on a double date with Rachel and Zach. The date was so much fun! We went to the hayride and corn maze like I said before, but it ended up being more for little kids. We still had fun of course. I put more pictures up on Facebook. Then we went to sushi in Lexington, went back to our apartment to watch "Darkness Falls" (which ended up being very stupid), play Ligretto, and drink homemade pumpkin white hot chocolate. I hadn't laughed like that in a long time.
 
The picture above is our super awkward perching or "owling" picture. We also took these pictures at a park right by the sushi restaurant while we were waiting for it to open. 
Bear turned 23 on Sunday. I bought him some Nike id running shoes with his name on them in school colors. And a baseball bracelet, and a baseball sign for the house (so maybe that was more for me). i made a German chocolate cake, and listened to him complain about how old he is. I love him so much and I hope we have 77 more years together! There was a bomb threat Sunday night, but we were off campus and unaffected by the lock-down. 2 people got arrested, but we don't know who they are. All the buildings on campus had to be searched between 1 and 4 am. Poor students had to be evacuated out of their dorms. The school handled it really well though. Class went on normally on Monday (I think to teach everyone a lesson that pranks don't get people out of class). Even though I got sleep, I was hoping for no class too, but that's SVU for you. The stinky thing was it was right before some important accreditation people were coming to tour the school to see if we've been doing well. Hopefully they'll notice how well the problem was taken care of. And although students mumbled and grumbled about it, I'm glad everyone's safe.


 Sorry I always talk about homework. But my next goal is to survive a book report on a book on Socialism that I'm behind on, and a 8-10 page paper on Mozart's 41st symphony. I can do it. 

Pumpkin Patch

Life has been crazy busy, but has also been very good to us. I've had 3 tests, 2 presentations and a major paper since I last updated, which I thought were going to be the end of me. Tutoring has been coming along. I make $60 a month. And it's just about as much as I can handle right now. 
 
General Conference was just what I needed. I got my answers and it really helped me through these crazy school weeks. We passed our first cleaning checks too (which were a nightmare!), which is something that makes us very happy. I've also started making dinner every night. I get the ideas from Pinterest.com. Some days I'm too stressed out and Bear says, "let's just have leftovers." Those words are just what I need to hear (even though there's usually no leftovers). But I'm pretty proud of myself knowing that I'm budgeting, eating healthy, and making good food for me and Bear. I'll be sure to post some of the good things I've gotten from that lovely site. 
 
One of my presentations was in my Political Philosophy class. I was super nervous and asked Bear to give me a blessing. It's an upper division class, and I had to be prepared for the questions and debating comments my classmates would throw at me at the end of the class. I felt like I did a horrible job, but I got 44/45. So prayers and preparation do work. And somehow I've been able to stay on top of my homework. It's kind of a miracle.
 
 I went to my first drive-in movie last weekend. It was my second time seeing The Help, but Bear hasn't seen it yet. I cried even harder this time. There was something so fun about sitting in the back of our truck bundled up in blankets in the fall night weather that made me really happy about life at that moment. 
The leaves are starting to change outside. There's this one particular tree that I can see from our living room window that is absolutely breathtaking. Tuesday was a day off from school for going to the DC Temple. I really wanted to go, but we had just recently been and it's 3 hours one way. I felt so guilty, but I felt like I just needed to focus on me and Bear and to take a breather after our crazy two weeks. One of the things on our Fall bucket list was to go to a pumpkin patch, and I found this one about an hour away from us in Monroe, VA. The whole drive was gorgeous. We drove along the Jame River in the Blue Ridge Mountains with all the colorful trees. Virginia is so beautiful. This little old man owned this pumpkin patch in the middle of nowhere. We were pretty much the only ones there. We picked out unique gourds, along with a white pumpkin and a pink one! Pink I tell you! It's actually more of a salmon color, but I claim it as pink. The little old man with the Appalachian Virginian accent said he'd never seen one like it before. Usually that kind has little brown knobs all over it. But this one was acne free! I'm quite happy. Decorating them has made me quite happy too.

We are very happy. I hope you are too. We're going on a hay ride and to a corn maze this Saturday. I'm really excited!

Birthday Week

The picture above is on our drive last Saturday to the DC Temple. The fog was super pretty.
 
I gave blood on Tuesday. It was my third time trying, and my second successful time. I gave in September of last year and tried in November, but had a really traumatic experience and had to wait awhile, and I'm glad it worked out. All this time I thought O positive was the universal blood type donor, but found out that day it was O negative. I don't feel as special now. We also got our refund checks from school. That definitely makes a girl happy. We went to Lee-hi's that night to get our blood sugar up again from giving blood.
 
^ These are our friends Josh and Rachel. They're both from North Carolina.
My birthday was on Wednesday! I'm officially 20. For awhile now I've been excited to get out of my teenage years, but now I feel kind of old. I kind of had a melt down on my birthday because it was such a busy day. Bear kept telling me to forget that it was my birthday, because we were going to celebrate on Saturday. But I love birthdays. So it was hard for me, but I got through the day and we went to Lee-hi's again that night :) My birthday was also my first day of tutoring. I tutor a few freshman football players. It's fun for me because I love history and it helps me review for my Western Civ II class at the same time.
 
Thursday was my second day of tutoring and I didn't feel as stupid. I went to a very good piano concert that was a student's senior recital that day too. After the concert and a meeting about being a music minor, it just reminded me why I'm not crazy enough to be a music major.
 
^ This is our silly kitty. I promise we're not animal abusers, but this just shows how he lets us do whatever. He's kind of a dog. And we love him. He doesn't play fetch yet, but he waits for us to come home, he wants to eat human food all day, and lets us totally handle him without freaking out. And we figured out he looks just like Tom from Tom and Jerry. Look it up. The're even gray and white in the same places.
 
On Friday, I got a duvet for a bed so that we don't have to fight over all my little blankets I've had since I was a little girl all night. And an iron too! Now I can quilt and iron Bear's dress shirts. On Friday night, we got invited to go to Roanoke by Andrew and Brandy, and we went to Red Lobster. It was my first time because I don't like seafood. So I ordered the shrimp linguine alfredo without shrimp haha. I loved the biscuits and I have to admit the coconut shrimp Bear got was pretty good. And then we went and watched Moneyball. Bear and Andrew loved it of course because they're on the SVU baseball team. But it had beena long week for me and I totally fell asleep during the movie. I've never done that during a movie at the movie theater before. I liked the concept though. It was a good date night!
 
We went to Roanoke again on Saturday because we had been planning it for while. Bear let me go on a shopping spree. We got Bear all new baseball gear too because he really needed it. And we planned to go to Wasabi's, my favorite Japanese restaurant, here was a carnival of some sort downtown and we couldn't really get to it. So we went to Red Robin's - another first for me. We got this fun onion ring tower hee hee. After we got home, I had a small birthday bbq on the Maury River with our friends. The water was the perfect temperature. And this is where I discovered that I don't like brats. I get to choose the meat next time.
 
^ I took this picture on our Sunday walk today. I've decided that I like green mountains way more than the Rockies. I love Virginia.

Here's to another crazy week!

DC Temple

My poor blog suffers. But not that I'm back in school, it goes to the bottom of my to-do list or my grades die. And I keep realizing that I'm not taking pictures at all. I just keep going going going everyday doing the bare necessities. Yes, I have to plan time to read, quilt, or any such lesiurely activity. I'm not saying I'm busier than everyone else, but I'm back to having to write every tiny thing into my schedule so that I can remember it.

I'm happy because I have visiting teachers again. By again, I mean after 2 years. I've been visiting teaching since my 18th birthday (minus this summer in Cali), but have only been visited once. It's quite nice. Especially when she brings pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. (But it's not okay when my cat is trying to get into them as we're visiting. Oh, kitty).

That poor cat is having an identity crisis. He doesn't respond to his name, he gallops like a horse, but totally acts like a dog, and has bunny paws. He doesn't act like a cat at all. And he gets to lonely because he's an indoor kitty now and we're so busy :(

I'm a tutor! I don't know why I'm so excited, but I just am. It's for a general ed class called America and the Englightenment (history). I had to get recommended by my teacher from last year. And I thought I didn't do that good in that class. I only work 2 hours a week, but I do get paid. Now it makes me feel a little more independent.We'll see how it goes!

This past weekend was Stake Temple Day, so I got to go do a session in the DC Temple for the first time! I did baptisms there last year. It's huge! I lost Bear in the temple because I've only been in the Nauvoo temple with him which is tiny, and when I went to another huge temple (Los Angeles), I was by myself. I was almost in tears. It ends up he had a clothing mishap that took him a while. But I can't explain how happy he was when he walked in the door and sat next to me. I know it sounds sappy, but it was a moment of realization of how sad I'd be if we lost each other forever. But I know that will never happen, because we've been through the temple together :)

It gave me a peace that I really needed. It gave me a good perspectve f the future.

After the temple, we went to Bear's brother Nate and his wife Izzy's house. They live in DC too on a military base and it was good to spend time with them. Yet again, I meant to take pictures, but failed. Bear and Nate had an intense 10 minute session of wrestling where they were both panting and sweating. Silly boys.

Then we drove home and met Rachel at Waffle House. I know it's as disgusting place, but we love it.

I got to substitute for the piano in Primary on Sunday. And we had John and Trisha over for dinner.

It got really cold this weekend. When I wanted Fall, I didn't mean winter.

But I love all I'm learning. College is good. And Bear is good.

My birthday is in 2 days! I won't be a teenager any more!

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.

Back to College

I've been dying to blog, but it's been another crazy week. Bustard survived the drive to Virginia. He seemed to be over-heating and wouldn't east, drink, or go to the bathroom the whole way there. And he was breathing hard. So I was a little bit worried, but he seems fine now. started getting sick the Sunday that we drove to Virginia. It was never anything major, just a little throat thing, but it was enough to not make the trip fun or my first week of school for that matter.

And we've finally moved in to our apartment! It took me a whole week because of classes, but it feels good. We have enough storage space which is nice. Our bathroom is a little sketchy and our kitchen is super skinny, and there's built in dressers in the living room instead of the bedroom, but all in all, the rent is cheap, and it came furnished.

I'm not taking an exercise, math, or science class this semester so that takes a huge stress off of me. (Not that I hate to exercise, it's just stressful as a class to me). I haven't been overloaded in homework so far. This is probably partly because I decided not to work this semester. Maybe next semester. We'll see. Bear's working in the cafeteria early in the morning when no one else wants to work, and then he gets it out of the way and his nights are off. He's not working next semester because of baseball, and so I might work...but I want to go to his games...and the money is nice but we can live without it...decisions, decisions.

I'm just happy to have my own kitchen and to use all my wedding gifts. I wrote down all my gifts, but I guess I was making stuff up in my head all summer, because I thought I was given things that clearly don't exist now that I've unpacked, and I've been pleasantly surprised with things I had forgotten about. I just made the BEST Thai coconut chicken for dinner tonight. I had plans to make dinner every night once I got to college. The reality of that is...I really only have time on Sunday. So my tummy is finally happy!

I like all my classes and teachers! I just love Southern Virginia University in general. My heart belongs to it. It will always be dear to me because it's where I met Bear, and had so many unexplainably happy experiences.

I'm taking:

• Health and Wellness
• Introduction to Music History
• Marriage and Family
• New Testament (for Institute)
• Western Civilization 2
• Political Philosophy
• Bella Voce (Womens' Choir)
• Group Voice
• Information Literacy (once a week)

I get to take Group Voice and Marriage and Family with Bear. What's funny, is we both signed up for that Marriage and Family class without talking to each other about it before hand. We were definitely meant to be :)

So, I'll post that delicious recipe next time. The pictures are from the school dance on Friday. It's was 90's themed. We hit up Goodwill of course. I swear my pink Levi's came up to my chest. Bear's pants were straight up purple and awesome.

So it was a crazy but good week. I'm glad to be settled. And we love our kitty because he's super silly, but doesn't scratch things, go to the bathroom in weird places, meow, or shed. He just makes us laugh. And Bear won't admit it, but I know he loves Bustard very much.

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.

A Few Things

A few things:

1. My time in California is coming to a close. We're not excited about the drive, but we are SO excited to be back in Virginia. It calls to me. I've decided that I can learn to live anywhere, but there's something about the green Blue Ridge Mountains and the plantations from 1700's all over. I feel at home there.
2. You know that song by Ingrid Michaelson called Far Far Away? Well I can see my life happening like the lyrics:

I will live my life as a lobsterman's wife

on an island in the blue bay.

He will take care of me,

he will smell like the sea,

And close to my heart he'll always stay.

I will bear three girls

all with strawberry curls,

little Ella and Nelly and Faye.

While I'm combing their hair,

I will catch his warm stare

On our island in the blue bay.

3. I'm addicted to Pinterest.

4. I'm a pro at sewing super hero capes now. I just hate my sewing machine that I have to fix.
5. I'm slowly showing Bear classic movies that I grew up with. That does not mean I'm only showing him Pride and Prejudice. Tonight I'm showing him My Fair Lady. We'll see how that goes.

Apartment

We got an apartment in the old Beev! It was a long search, but it's good to know we have somewhere to go now. It's just a small, upstairs, one-bedroom apartment. But it's furnished, affordable, and close to campus.

You want to know the best part? We get to keep Bustard :) :) :) I'm so happy. And seriously lucky.

Like I said, come on over. Come stay with us. Come party. We love the people.

Why I love Virginia

These are just 3 pictures from campus. There's bajillions of these trees everywhere. Aren't you jealous? I forgot to get pictures of the dogwood and other pink trees.

I could live in Virginia the rest of my life :)

Old Virginny

Yes, I'm posting this from my iPad. It was my surprise graduation gift from my parents. I don't feel like I deserve it. I love all the free apps. The only problem is I don't have a camera to take pictures of my dorm room or whatever. And even if I did, I'd have to upload them from a different computer. And I can't save pictures from other sites on my iPad. So my posts will be a little boring with no pictures from now on.

Well, i wanted to update after that, but the laptop charger broke. But we had a wonderful Sunday of relaxing in the pool, eating leftovers from Olive Garden, working out in the gym, reading, and having Tash teach us her seminary homework to us. We also got to start watching Our Mutual Friend. The car was fixed by noon on Monday. They replaced the radiator. And it wasn't the head gasket that was blown, so we we're lucky. And no engine damage. We were happily on our way. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner in West Virginia It was so much more fitting to have fried apples and dumplings and biscuits in West Virginia. Our waitress had an awesome accent.

We made it to Williamsburg by 11 that night. We got to tour Williamsburg, Jamestowne, and go to the beach on Tuesday. I loved being where Felicity and Pocahontas grew up. Even though my mom liked to remind me that Felicity isn't real, and that there was no John Smith-Pocahontas romance. Oh well. I can still dream what I want. I learned a lot of cool stuff. And it just seemed so surreal to be there. I was just too happy to actually see the beach. I missed it so much. I seriously skipped and hummed down the beach. I was in heaven. And it actually reminded me of a Japanese beach. I miss Japan. Dearly.

Well I need to go to bed. But I will update about moving in and orientation and getting used to everything. Keep in contact everyone!
Virginia is gorgeous. Green like Nauvoo, but with pretty green mountains. I'm going to school in the Shenandoah valley. How cool does that sound?

Well, we left today headed to Virginia. Just mom, me and Tash. We decided we wouldn't have enough time to go to D.C., and that we'd save that for when I get picked up in May. But we still planned to see Yorktown, Jamestown, maybe Williamsburg, Monticello, and Mt. Vernon.

We left at 9 in the morning, and even found a Qdoba's to eat at. It wasn't open...so we went to Taco Bell...that's like the difference between The Ivy and Mcdonald's for me. We drove all the way to Louisville, Kentucky. Our plans were to go much further. But the car was acting up. It was guzzling gas and the air conditioning turned hot. The car almost overheated. So we slowed down a little and turned the A.C. off. But the engine kept revving, and even with the windows rolled down, it was miserable. The car had been taken in for a tune-up specifically for this trip, so we figured it was fine. But we called my dad and he said we should just have it checked on real quick. Luckily, we found a place, but it was closing for Saturday night. They weren't even going to help us but my mom kept persisting. And they were very nice and helped us. If not, we'd have had to wait til Monday morning just for the inspection. It took quite a while, and they said it looked like there's holes in our radiator and a gasket blew, and if we would've gone much longer, we would have blown the engine. Good thing we stopped.

So, we can still drive the car about a mile, slowly. And they're going to look at replacing the radiator early Monday morning. Luckily, there's a Subaru place right around the corner. Maybe we can even get one of our keys replaced! Huzzah!

So...now we have less time to site-see, and HOPEFULLY they'll have the right parts to replace and that there isn't anymore serious problems. But we're being prayerful and faithful. It's just a little bump in road on our adventure. :) It's been really hard to say goodbye to everyone. And I've been on an emotional roller coaster, going from sad to leave home, to stressed that everything won't work out and I'll end up hating college, to a calm feeling of every thing's going to work out, to super excited to just hurry and get there and soak up college life. I'm a walking contradiction. I loved the extra week of no work, getting extra time to say goodbye to people and slowly packing and spending time with my family. And as tearful as I was this morning, I just wanted to hurry and get there, and now this.

But, I'm really starting to believe that everything DOES happen for a reason. This is where my dad would say, "Good luck=bad luck!" And things could've been much worse. Classes could've been starting this Monday, creating huge problems time wise, I could've been alone, we could've not made it this far, we could've blown the engine, on the side of the road on this hot day, because we ignored the problem and just kept going. AND there's lots of hotels and restaurants walking distance from the auto repair place :) So we got to go to Olive Garden, which I haven't been to in years. The sad part is, we can't go to church because it's too far of a drive. Oh, and the weird thing is, my mom was talking to us this morning about recognizing the feeling of being irritated as a warning sign that you're about to act or say something in a negative way. So instead, it should be an invitation to be positive and react in a Christlike way. Gosh, I'm sitting here preaching when it's all about myself and silly car problems.

Well I hope we make it there in one piece! Who knows what kind of a blessing in diguise this is :)
P.S. We read The Giver together in the car today and finished it. We loved it, except the ending is vague, and we don't like those.

Southern Virginia University

I went to the Southern Virginia University campus at the very end of January. Dad drove me and Tash out. That was the farthest east I've ever been! We got out of school early on Thursday, and then dad drove us to Monmouth so he could teach his class before he left. Me and Tash read in the library and dad let his class out early. We drove all through the night both ways. We got to Buena Vista, VA early Friday morning. But it was too early to check into our motel. We had to kill osme time before the Visitor's Center opened too. Then we drove an hour and a half to Appomattox. We took pictures and took the tour. It was depressing. I could tell that Virginia would be very pretty in the spring, summer, and fall. It was a lot more hilly than Illinois. And there were mini mountains.

And I realized just how historic this state was. It had Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg. It was one of the original 13 colonies. Robert E. Lee, Geroge Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were all from Virginia. Most of the major events in the Civil War happened there. Al lthe buildings were really old and smelled old too. 90% of them were made from dark red brick and had white columns. We passed Virginia Military Academy and Washington-Lee University. We didn't go u pto visit, but we could see the flagpole that the students tore down the flag from in "Gods and Generals". We also passed the cemetary where Stonewall Jackson was buried.

The SVU campus was really old. It was an all girl's school founded in the 1860s. It looks like Hogwarts on the inside. The school colors are green and black and reminded me of Slytherin. It snowed a lot the day we visited the campus. I guess they never have that kind of weather and everyone was freaking out. A ton of professors didn't show up. And I missed some of my talent scholarship auditions. I had to walk to one of the professor's houses for one them. I was really nervous.

We paid a refundable downpayment to SVU, and they're already having me take lots of surveys and giving me lots of calls to see what classes they should put in my schedule. It would be cool to go there. They have great service. But I'm hearing back from BYU at the end of this week! Gah!