This is the hole Allan got in his pants during the boyscout camp out he went on last week end. It's quite the hole. I'll be patching it this week.
We counter-offered on the house that we want...hopefully they'll accept this offer and we'll be able to move forward to closing!
One of Allan's school buddies came into town this week and we were able to spend an evening with him. They had a lot of fun talking together and reminiscing about school.
We went on a picnic with some friends this Friday. They have a little boy and are expecting a girl in a few months. I watch their little boy from time to time. He is a blast to watch. This last week he wanted to go outside pretty badly. I told him we couldn't go this time but when he wants something he doesn't give up easily. He saw my shoes, brought them over to me and set them by my feet. I put them on and then he grabbed my hand and walked me to the door! What a cutie.
Our friends H and J, Allan, and Allan's school buddy, K (in the red shirt)
The picnic was a lot of fun. We forgot how early it gets dark here and ended up eating by make-shift lantern. Good thing my friend frequents pinterest. She was able to create the lantern from a water bottle and flashlight. Genius!
Their little boy. He had a hot dog in one hand and a cookie in the other - he was a very happy little camper!
We went to a corn maze this weekend as well. We love doing things
outside and a corn maze is always fun! We took our time wandering
around, trying to get to every part of the maze. Several times we had
people stop and ask us which way to go, they were pretty disappointed
when they discovered we were just wandering around.
This year there were several squash plants along the paths. I think the blooms on the plants are gorgeous.
There were also a lot of extremely rotten corn cobs. They look pretty weird.
Allan took some pictures of me when I wasn't aware. The funny thing is when he took this picture I thought "Is Allan taking a picture of me...no...I'd hear the camera..." Guess not.
The view from the bridge that goes over some of the maze.
I don't know what this is but I thought it was really pretty.
The sunflower field. It is so gorgeous!
One of the pumpkins. I love the vine that is coming off of it.
It was colder this year than last year so we didn't see any caterpillars. In fact, we didn't see very many insects at all, mostly just bees. That was kind of nice. ;) We decided that next year we're going to go through as fast as we can and time ourselves. Then we'll work our way backward and explore the rest of the maze. Then we'll really confuse people!
I didn't post here last week because I hurt my ribs and couldn't sit at the desk long enough to type a blog up (don't worry, nothing serious, just painful). However, Allan decided that this was a good excuse to purchase a wireless modem. So we have officially gone wireless in our house. Woohoo! I'm not sure the injury was worth it, but I'll still take the wireless, I'm loving it!
The last two weeks have been busy for us. The first thing we did was jump into house hunting. We weren't going to look into buying a house until next year, but we suddenly felt really good about doing it now. I met with several realtors and between the two of us we looked at 9 houses but didn't like any of them enough to buy them. However, the following week (last week) we looked at a house that we fell in love with and made an offer on Monday! We know we're going to have to counter-offer back and forth a bit, but with any luck we'll have a house by the end of the year!
The house we want is a 4 bed 2 bath, it has a decent sized yard, a nice open kitchen/family room, and a formal living room, lots of storage, and a 2 car garage. It was the model home for a new subdivision here and hasn't been lived in yet and it's been on the market for quite a while. Hopefully it will be ours soon! I would show pictures but we forgot our camera. :-/
We had a fun evening at the county fair a couple weekends ago. Our favorite thing to do there is look at all of the children's art work. My favorite drawing this year was "The Saxophone Fairy". I wasn't aware that there was a fairy watching over saxophones, but I love fairies and saxophone music so what better combination can there be! It really was a great drawing. We also loved the poems the children wrote about a picture of sunflowers. One of them said: My sunflower is "more fragile than dry wall and more beautiful than the mine". Haha! Allan and I had a good laugh out of that one! Another of my favorites was My sunflower is "as interesting as dirt bikes", I have my doubts that he really meant that... It was so fun to see what was on the kids minds the day they wrote those poems! There were also some really sweet ones that said My sunflower is "as beautiful as my mom". Awww.
We also saw this awesome cake:
For a treat Allan got me an elephant ear! For those of you who aren't from around here elephant ears are Navajo fry bread. I LOVE these! My mom used to make them for us when my sisters and I were little. I make them every now and then but I can't make them nearly as good as my mom or the amazing people around here. I got honey on it and Allan, like the gentleman he is, carried it for me while we went to find a seat. On our way he suddenly stopped and looked down to discover honey all over his belly and down his legs! He was just embodying his sweetness ;)
Allan wanted a pumpkin pie shake from Dairy Queen for his treat that night so we stopped there on our way home. They make a delicious shake!
Our ward has a Halloween tradition - they "Boo" people. Someone starts by making a couple plates of treats and then leaves them on your doorstep with a sign that says "You've been booed". It's a really fun tradition. One of our sneaky friends booed us and we got some yummy treats! They were delicious! Thank you whoever you are!
For family night last week we made some of Grandma's famous sugar cookies so we could boo some people in return. We had a lot of fun decorating (and eating) the cookies, I think they turned out pretty cute! Allan took a plate to work for his coworkers to enjoy as well. I have a lot of good memories of decorating sugar cookies when I was little, and I can't wait to do it with my kids one day.
The college here did "The Ark" this weekend. It's a musical about Noah's Ark. I was expecting it to be super cheesy and it certainly didn't fail! We laughed through almost the entire show. The cast did really well too. In this show the animals on Noah's ark are the audience. At the beginning of the show the actors went around greeting people as hippos, zebra's, cows, and hyenas. My favorite was when one of the actors found a man sitting all by himself. The actor says to Noah "Weren't they supposed to come in pairs?" Noah says yes and the actor say "Well, I think we're missing one of these." (haha) Noah consults his list and says "No, just one unicorn." Haha! Gotta love the cheese!
Afterward, as per our tradition, we went and got frozen yogurt and then drove around the neighborhood we hope to live in soon. It was a fun afternoon, and we really appreciated the time together. Allan's been pretty busy lately and we've missed each other.
Allan also went on a boyscout camp out this weekend. They hiked in 2 miles to an old plane crash, camped there, and then hiked out the next day. Allan said it was quite the hike. For a lot of it there wasn't any trail and they had to climb rocks and go through a lot of heavy brush and stuff to get there. The boys were pretty tired afterward. They all came out with some minor scrapes and bruises because of the brush, and Allan came home with a huge (and I mean HUGE) hole in his pants! (Just so you don't have to wonder, I ripped it on a tree branch while trying to squeeze between it a large rock. I guess that I just didn't go skinny enough.)
We had the primary program this week. Before I tell you about that though I have to tell you about last Sundays practice for the Primary Program. We had just finished going through the program and were about to go through it again. The kids had a LOT of energy that day so Sister A (in the primary presidency) stood up and talked to the kids about how they should stand. She told them that they needed to stand up tall with their hands by their sides, their chests out, their shoulders back, and they should be very, very still. They all got ready, and then I got up to lead them in a song. I'm leading and the kids are doing great, then one by one they start looking at me and giggling and slowly they start to loose their perfect singing stance. Suddenly I realize that I am swaying and stepping side to side to the music, and my non-leading hand is definitely not by my side! As nonchalantly as I could I stopped my little dance, put my hand by my side and tried to be the good example I was supposed to be. They did really well after that. It's amazing how well behaved they can be when I am well behaved!
So, this Sunday we did the real deal. The kids did great! They said their parts perfectly (there was only one sweet little boy who started to say a prayer instead of his part), remembered the words to the songs, and were amazingly well behaved. I even made it to the 2nd to last song before I started swaying to the music. ;)
My favorite song that we did is Easter Hosanna. The song is about Christ coming to the Nephites and the joy they expressed when they saw their resurrected Savior. I didn't give enough time to the younger kids for them to learn the verses very well but they had the chorus down great. So, we had the older kids sing the verses and then when the chorus came the little kids would pop out of their seats and sing "Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the most High God!" Those sweet kids sang those words with so much power and happiness. It was really powerful. (Kami does a great job teaching them. She is great at getting them excited to sing and at helping them learn the words.)
Clear Passage played a big part in our journey down the infertility road. If you've read our post "Why Adoption?" you know that I got really sick in 2009. Here are some of my symptoms:
Morning sickness
Pain in my pelvis
Having to pee about every 5 minutes
Crying for no reason
Hungry all the time but can't eat
Always tired
Weight loss
Swollen abdomen
You'd think I was pregnant right...um, no. Just some of the weird things scar tissue can do to your body. So, I spent 9 months (ironically) with all of these symptoms. The pain was so bad that I could barely walk. I couldn't stand up straight, lay down flat, or sit. I couldn't hold my nieces and nephews or get down on the floor to play with them. I had to choose one thing to do a day besides get myself ready for the day because after doing one thing (usually dishes or making dinner) the pain would be so bad I couldn't stand up anymore. If I did something like teach my dance class or go to the grocery store it would take me a day or two to recover. I'm usually a pretty active person so laying down on the couch doing nothing about drove me nuts!
It was in an odd way a blessing. Because I had this pain our insurance covered some exams it normally wouldn't have and we were able to find out why we couldn't get pregnant. Through these tests we discovered that the same thing that was causing me pain was causing our infertility.
We prayed every day for a miracle to happen. We received countless priesthood blessings that I would be healed. We went to several specialists and the only thing they could offer was surgery to remove all of my female organs. Yikes! More surgery always means more scar tissue. Scar tissue is the problem in the first place, why would I want more unless it was at least going to give me a baby?
While we were trying to decide what to do Allan stumbled across Clear Passage. I am so grateful to have a husband that never gives up. While he was researching Clear Passage he had a really good feeling about it and was certain that this would work for us. I prayed about it but I was such an emotional and physical wreck at the time that I couldn't figure out what to think. I just trusted Allan and let him make the appointment. In July of 2010 I went to California where the nearest Clear Passage clinic to us is located. One of my mission companions let us stay with her and her husband! I really enjoyed catching up with her and she saved us a ton of money. I will always be very grateful to her for that!
I did 20 hours of therapy in 5 days. Now, this is not one of those nice massages where you leave feeling relaxed. They really dig in and it hurts...BAD! But, after the first session my pain had decreased. By the end of the week I had:
NO PAIN for the first time in 9 months!
I could stand up straight and actually gained half an inch in height. I was always exactly 5'2" and now I am proud to say I'm 5'2 1/2"!
I could walk,sit, and lay down without pain!
My stomach had always been rock solid and I always thought it was because I had great abs, but after Clear Passage I have a softer, more pliable belly, all that rock hardness was just scar tissue. :-/
My right rib has always had really low mobility. When I would take a deep breath my left rib would extend out like normal, and my right one would pretty much stay where it was. Now it moves too! It's made it a lot easier to breath!
I have always been flexible, but I gained more flexibility and can actually do a backbend! Hadn't been able to do one of those in years!
I had regular bowl movements for the first time in my life! (I'm sure you wanted to know that...)
I could eat meat and other foods that are hard to digest. Some of these foods I had not eaten in 8-10 years!
My female organs are healthy now (except for the hydrosalpinx), and I no longer have all those weird hormonal pregnancy like symptoms.
My bladder was freed up so now I don't have to pee every 5 minutes! (Hallelujah!)
I had also been having pain in my left foot and leg that I thought was unrelated but that has been significantly better since I went there.
I couldn't go more than 2 days without exercising or I would get a massive headache, now I can go for a week without getting a headache! (Although I try not to...)
I also gained more mobility in just about every part of my body. I can jump, run, and dance a lot easier than ever before.
I am still infertile but I no longer have chronic pain. Clear Passage healed me so that I could care for the children that will hopefully enter my home through adoption. I am grateful every day for the experience I had with them. They were great!
Me with my therapist. She was so fablous!
They also worked well with our non-sufficient student insurance, and half of the cost was covered. They teach you how to do some of the stuff on your own too so you can continue to heal. I want to go back and continue the therapy. There is so much more they could do for me, 27 years of scar tissue doesn't go away in 20 hours of therapy. It sure did help a lot though.
If you have chronic pain or know someone who does, look into these people. It will be worth your time. The infertility stuff obviously didn't work for me but it has for a lot of their patients, and I think is worth looking into if you are suffering from infertility. Here is their video:
Their website is www.clearpassage.com. Right now they are offering a free treatment if you like them on Facebook. There is a lot you can do to get entered in multiple times so check it out!
I spent the first two days of this week without Allan. He was in Utah helping with a career fair. I usually travel with him, but since we just came back from Utah, and he was only going to be gone for two days, we thought we'd save some money and leave me at home.
While he was gone I went to a girls night. I can't remember the last time I went to a girls night...but it was fun. I got to know some nice women in our ward that I hadn't really met before, and a woman who is not in our ward - but I wish she was because she is absolutely hilarious! At one point in the evening a couple of the girls started talking about how they are 25 and when they get close to thirty they will feel "SO OLD"! I about spit my water all over the room because I was trying to hold back my laughter! I am 29 (very close to 30), I didn't realize I was "SO OLD"! (LOL!) This isn't the first time that's happened though and I always get a big kick out of the shock it creates when people learn that I am closer to 30 than 20. Just in case you were wondering...I don't feel old...I feel about the same way I felt 10 years ago. It was a fun evening and the girls were very nice; I hope to get to know them better.
Later that week a friend and her little girl were over. We were making dinner for someone. The little girl, C, is 3. My age came up and when C heard that I am 29 she said "Your 29!" with shock written all over her face. I said "Yep, I'm old huh!" C frowned and said "No...you're little." Phew! If a 3 year old doesn't think I'm old I think I'm safe for a few more years! That's assuming she meant that I am young and not short! Haha!
We had a really fun date roasting s'mores up on the mountain again. We really enjoyed the cooler weather and seeing the stars. It's really nice to have the mountain so close.
We attended another birthday for a little girl who turned 6. I love going to children's parties. Allan is never really sure about it, but I know the fathers of the little girls are always relieved to see him and have someone to talk to through all the girlyness. I went to this girls older sisters party earlier in the year. Their mom does such a great job planning and executing these parties. She has it down to an hour and a half with games, presents, lunch, and cake and ice cream. She is a pro, and they are always so fun; the kids always have a blast.
At this party I ate the first hot dog I have had in 13 or 14 years! I'm not the biggest fan, but I did enjoy it. One day I'm going to go back to Chicago and try a Chicago dog and discover what all the hype is about.
I finally finished the baby afghan I was working on! I had to take it out about 6 times (sheesh) but it's finally done!
I also made a mobile out of ribbon for our nursery.
I know the afghan and mobile are really girly. We have felt for a long time that there is a little girl out there for us. We were going to plan a neutral nursery, but we finally decided that we would embrace that feeling we have and plan a nursery for a little girl. If we end up with a boy then we'll have a good laugh, celebrate, and then re-do the nursery. Until then I plan on making it as girly as possible! ;)
We really enjoyed conference this weekend. We love the extra cuddle time and the spiritual uplift. I was especially touched by President Eyring's and Elder Oaks' talks. After a lot of thought and prayer we decided not to do foster care at this time. After hearing Elder Oaks talk we had to reconsider our decision. There are so many children out there that need loving, nurturing homes, and we really want to provide that. However, after much prayer again, the answer was still clearly no. So, we will continue to wait.
Elder Eyring said "Many of us in moments of personal anguish feel that God is far from us. The pavillion that seems to intercept divine aid does not cover God, but occasionally covers us. ...We can't insist on our timetable when the Lord has His own. ...Sometimes our insistance on acting according to our own timetable can obscure His will for us."
This talk was very fitted to me at this time. The longer we wait the harder it is to accept God's will and timing. And we've only been waiting for 4 years, we know many who have waited for 10 or more! I certainly don't understand God's will and I have to admit that sometimes I just don't really like it. But I know that is because I don't understand. One day I will. That will be a wonderful, long-awaited day. Until then we are trying to take it one day at a time and trust God. It's easier said then done, but He has never failed us yet.
