#1

In junior high, I was a perfectionist and obsessed with getting straight A's.  I kept a 4.0 until 9th grade when I got an A- in world studies.  I cried to my teacher and she changed it to an A.

(then I got another A- my first term in high school in photography...of all classes. and I learned that crying doesn't get you good grades. ha.)

the truth

I didn't want any of you to come away from my diet coke post thinking Wade is perfect and all is fine and dandy.  That wouldn't be painting an accurate picture of our lives.  You see...4 weeks ago, before we ever went on vacation, Wade took lunch to his internship in a tupperware.  It stayed in his backpack the ENTIRE TIME we were gone.  When we got back, he realized this as he was leaving to school, and tossed it in the kitchen sink.

Later that day, I was washing the dishes (yes...still by hand. boo.)

I opened it and almost died.

the smell literally almost knocked me over.  I turned the water on full blast and poured a gallon of dishsoap in it, all the while not breathing, and ran to the living room to recover.

I have never smelled something so bad in my entire life.  The tupperware stayed in the sink, soaking in bleach water, the rest of the day.  And Wade got to clean it when he got home.

Why the heck didn't I just throw the stupid thing away? 

I don't know the answer to that...

maybe the fumes killed some brain cells. 

**giveaway update**

p.s. you can start entering the giveaway tomorrow! I will title all the entry posts just as #1, #2, etc.  Also, I wanted to let you know that you can relate to my facts in any random way possible. for example, if I said, "my favorite color is brown." you could say, "my favorite color is pink!" or "i had a dog once that was brown" or even just "i hate brown." get it?

are you overwhelmed by doing it on your own blog and posting 28 days in a row? maybe do it once or twice a week.  

the more, the merrier! :)

let's chat giveaway

winters are blah. let me just put that out there.

i'm cooped up inside.

i feel that i need some fun in my life.

so i have this idea...

everyday for the month of february, I will post something random about myself.

Some may be long stories, some small facts, funny or sad or boring. 

I'm putting myself out there.

wanna join?

make a comment on any of my posts with one of YOUR random facts that somehow relates to mine.

I'll enter you in a drawing for every comment you make.

Yes, that means you could be entered 28 times.

(if you are clever enough to find something we have in common every single day)

I'll draw the winner on March 1st and then send you a package of love from Boston, filled with some of my favorite things.

and I'm really awesome...so you know my favorite things will be pretty cool as well. :) 

(a treat, some homemade cards, a boston t-shirt, a mix of my favorite songs...it's in the works)

who seriously doesn't like to get mail?  

so come play!

I'm looking forward to getting to know you!

and don't you worry faithful blog readers! I will continue my regular blog posts as well...in case you fear missing anything exciting in my life.

P.S. how fun would it be if you hosted the same giveaway on your blog too? we would have a whole blog-o-sphere of random, somehow related facts floating around. and more packages for everyone!  feel free to copy and paste this post to your blog with a link to mine.  

be sure to let me know you're doing it, and I'll post a link to yours in my sidebar.

be excited, people.

baby blessing

We blessed cute little Miles while we were in Utah at my parent's home with our close family. It was a nice evening together and such a special experience.  We feel so lucky to be Miles's parents!
**Thanks to Wade's family for driving all the way from Logan to be with us!

it doesn't take much

Miles has decided that he would like to wake up every 1.5-2 hours to eat. every. single. night.
thats right. my nights go like this:

bed at 10:00pm
wake up at 12:00am
back to bed at 12:30am
wake up at 2:00am
back to bed at 2:30am
wake up at 3:00am
back to bed at 3:30am
wake up at 5:30am (yes...my longest stretch of sleep. wahoo!)
back to bed at 6:00am
wake up at 7:30am

no i dont think you are stupid. i am fully aware that you can probably figure out when every two hours is...
i just felt that maybe if i wrote out, you could maybe understand the seriousness of this problem.

i feel like a zombie.

i would try to sleep train him, really i would.  but the poor kid is starving.  the stupid formula we have to give him for his milk allergy does not keep him full.  I begged the doctor to let me put rice cereal in his bottle to keep him full and she said his tummy probably hasn't healed yet after all he's been through and he might be allergic to rice cereal as well, so he has to wait longer than most babies to have it. aaaaahhh sad day. anyway, like i was saying...

i feel like a zombie.

and honestly, it doesn't make me the most pleasant person to be around.  and when wade comes home from a long day at school at 10:00pm and finds me frazzled and and annoyingly whiney, it probably isn't his favorite thing to be asked to run to the grocery store for something i forgot.  but he goes anyway.  and this is what i found sitting on the counter when he got back:

i know. he's a gem isn't he?

(i think secretly he just wants me to have some caffeine in my life so maybe i'm not such a grouch.

love the spongebob card.

and in case you are wondering why he signed himself "comfy husby" - did you see those gap commercials with the little girls cheering and they say, "i love my comfy sweater! i love my comfy sweater!" well, lately i have just inserted "husby" or "miles" in place of the sweater and sing it.

a lot.

no.

i'm not annoying at all.

p.s. don't hate that i have discovered picnik.com and probably enjoy the 1960's effect on my pictures way too much. I can't promise i will stop anytime soon.

airplanes and surprises

Two weeks ago, we were very daring parents and took our little 2 month old on an airplane...
believe me, I was scared out of my mind.  I was convinced he was going to scream the whole time and that I would get dirty, horrible glares from everyone on the plane.  but have no fear, he was a little angel.  I'm not kidding, he slept the entire time and didn't make a peep. (sheesh...maybe i should take him on airplanes more often.)

Where were we going, do you ask? UTAH of course.  We planned the trip back in November, but we didn't tell my family.  I just felt so bad about my parents having to leave so soon after Miles was born that I wanted to let them spend more time with him.  So we showed up on my parents doorstep, without any warning.  And keeping a secret for 2 months was definitely worth it because their reaction was hilarious.  If you know my dad, it won't surprise you that he just stood there and stared at us, and then said, "wow."  He doesn't get too worked up, but he claims he was just speechless.  My mom heard giggling from the other room and she just thought my brothers friends had come over, but when we came into the house and she saw us from the top of the stairs, she came jumping down, laughing and crying and screaming.  She gave me a huge hug that involved squishing little Miles between us. ha.  Wade got it all on video, but I'm not allowed to post it on my blog, seeing as my mother is so embarrassed by her enthusiasm. :)

We spent the next two weeks going between our families in Smithfield and Orem.  It was SO GOOD to see family and spend time relaxing and playing with Miles (and having free babysitters!) and eating good food! hello costa vida!

there's nothing quite as scary...

as looking out the window and seeing a path leading to your back door.
and it just snowed.
so you know they aren't your footprints.
and you know they aren't your husband's.
and then you spend the entire day creeping around and listening for strange sounds.
because you're convinced there is someone in your house.
everything makes you jump.
and you half expect to walk into the other room and find your child kidnapped.

and then your husband comes home and goes outside to check it out.
and comes inside laughing and says,
"it's just dog footprints."

the delivery

can you believe your eyes? I'm finally posting about the birth of our child! nearly 2 months late...
I think it would be fitting to start by telling you that I was dilated to a 3 at the beginning of October.  My doctor was so nice as to tell me, "Oh yeah, you're having this baby early.  I bet he'll be here in 2 weeks."  One word of advice: NEVER listen to a prediction like that.

Two weeks later, and still no baby?  Well that's when I started to get frustrated.  But I still wasn't due for 2 more weeks, so I spent the time I had left finishing some last minute projects and things around the apartment to keep me occupied, each day getting more and more uncomfortable and less sleep.  My parents booked their flights in advance, according to my doctor's predictions, and showed up on October 31(my due date), expecting that the baby would already be here.  He wasn't.  And we started to get worried half way through the week when he still wasn't here and they were leaving at the end of the week.

My mom thought that maybe if she walked me all over creation, the baby would just fall out eventually.  So we spent every single day going on looooooooooong walks.  I'm not kidding, like 5 miles a day!  Some of those walks included jumping jacks and running up and down stairs. And still there was no baby. This did nothing but hurt my back. 

We went to the doctor with 3 days left before my parents takeoff, which only depressed the heck out of us because she refused to induce me until I was 2 and a half weeks overdue! 2 AND A HALF WEEKS! what the?!

I woke up November 7th with a funny pain.  Could this be a contraction?  I felt that I was getting my hopes up and carried on the day, going to a relief society retreat with my mom, taking Wade and my dad to the North End to get steak sandwiches, and going out to Walden pond where, once again, my mom insisted on more walking. At this point, those interesting pains were coming almost every seven minutes(we knew this because my mom had been writing them down since I first woke up), but they weren't very painful.  My mom suggested we walk around the ENTIRE lake, but by the time we got halfway, I was needing to stop for each contraction.  So we turned around and went back.  We went out to eat in Cambridge at Border's where a lady in the bathroom asked when I was due.  When I said "Last week," she said, "OH MY! bless your little heart!" It's so nice to have sympathy.

We went home and watched TV and suddenly I felt like I was going die.  So thats what real contractions are, eh?  They really are as bad as everyone says.  Maybe worse.  I spent the next three hours writhing in pain on the floor and throwing up.  Why did I not go to the hospital, you ask?  I delivered at Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is like number one in the country for delivering babies... which means they make you stay home until your contractions are 4 minutes apart for at least an hour.  I had to call the hospital to ask permission to come in!  And even when I did call at 4 minutes apart, they asked me if I could stay home just a little longer, maybe take a shower to help me feel more comfortable.  Uh...yeah right.  So they said I could come in.  We loaded up our stuff and got in the car around midnight.

Have I ever mentioned how awful the streets of Boston are?  There's like a million holes and bumps that haven't been fixed in years.  Well I think that Wade managed to hit every single bump. And my contractions were suddenly coming every 1-2 minutes.  It really was like the movies where the wife is screaming at the husband and really I thought I wasn't going to get there in time for an epidural.

They checked me in right away and I was already dilated to a 6.  A nurse in triage was asking me questions and I couldn't even think straight to answer them.  I finally got my epidural and it was heaven.  Absolute heaven.  I'm so grateful for modern medicine.
I then tried to sleep for the next few hours until baby Miles was ready to arrive.  At the same time, my mom was making phone calls to the airline, asking them to switch her flight to a later time.  When it was finally time to start pushing, it only took a half an hour and about 4 segments of pushing for Miles to make his debut.  And I felt like a wonder woman.  Giving birth is no small thing!

After I was taken up to my room, Wade went to pick up my dad, who got to spend a short half hour with his new grandson.  My mom hung around for another hour, and we had a very sad parting when she left.  I wasn't so sure I could do this mom thing without her.  But thank goodness for phones, because I call her almost daily.

Miles was perfectly healthy and chubby, almost a whopping 9 pounds.  He had jaundice, so he spent his first day of life hanging out in a tanning bed.

We absolutely love being parents.  It's almost like Miles has always been a part of our lives. I didn't know it was possible to love someone this much. I truly believe that childbirth is a miracle and you can't help but be reassured that there is a God who loves us and has an eternal plan.  I'm so glad our family has the opportunity to be together forever.

2010

yay! It's finally here!
We are so happy 2010 has finally rolled around.  And not because the past few years haven't been great, but because we have so much to look forward to.
This year:
Wade will graduate from the University of Massachusetts Boston with his Masters in Mental Health Counseling.
We will pack up everything we own and pile it in a Uhaul.
We will drive across the country and move back to our precious Utah.
We will live with our parents until we find an apartment...ha
But when we find that apartment, what a happy day it will be!
(I have high hopes for our next apartment, which I think is ok, considering rent for something nice is a 1/3 of rent in Boston right?  more space, no mice, no gross bugs...hurrah!)
We will be close to mountains again.
We will be close to family and friends again.We are literally counting down the days.
(But still trying to make the most of the time we have left here.)

I just cannot even wait.

2009 in condensed form

what a very long and hard year...

that being said, we have so much to be grateful for.  and despite all the hard times, we are still happy and loving life together.  Here is a review of our past year:
January
my best friend Jenn came to visit here in Boston and spent about two weeks running around the city with me.  It was absolutely freezing, so we spent a lot of time eating. We went to the New England Aquarium, The Museum of Science, walked the Freedom Trail, climbed the to the to of the Bunker Hill Monument and watched endless hours of the office. It also included a trip to the emergency room when I almost sliced my finger off opening a bag of pancake mix with a very large knife.

February
was complete with a trip to the temple and who could forget... it was the month we found out we were pregnant!  I was feeling icky.  I teased Wade that maybe I was pregnant.  But really, I was just teasing.  I came home from work to find a pregnancy test sitting on the counter.  I took it to humor Wade.  I thought maybe I would lie to him and tell him it was positive.  Only...when I told him it was positive, I wasn't lying.

March

We went to Newport, RI with Wade's parents and saw the mansions and walked along the ocean.  It was rainy and foggy and beautiful.  We had a lot of fun taking a break, watching movies, and hanging out.  Sadly, what I remember most is sitting on the bathroom floor and hovering over the toilet. :)

Apriland May were apparently uneventful, seeing as I have no recollection of them.

June

is the month I went home to Utah and who even knows what I was thinking for leaving Wade that long.  We were both very lonely and sad without each other.  But I got to spend lots of time with my family and be at the airport to see my cute little brother Cooper come home from his mission in Pennsylvania.  Wade got to come out for a few days to see his sister Niki get married.  It's also the month we found out we were having a BOY! We celebrated Wade's 26th birthday and also our 1 year anniversary with a surprise trip to New York City.

 

July
We celebrated the 4th of July on the Charles River and watched an amazing fireworks show.  We went to a Red Sox game.  We explored the local beaches, saw the Tall Ships, and watched my belly get bigger.  We also flew to Washington DC to see some old friends and see the sites.

August
was a big month for us, in that we spent weeks preparing for our move.  We left our apartment in the North End, which was downtown and very busy, noisy, and crowded and moved into one in the South End, which is quiet and more residential.  It has been a completely different way of living and we now enjoy having a washer and dryer, a car, and...NO RENT!

September

We spent most of the month getting settled into our new place and preparing for our new baby.  We took one last trip to Maine and New Hampshire to see lighthouses and the beautiful beaches on the east coast.  And yes, at 8 months pregnant, I camped. I'm very proud.

 

October

This is the month our baby was expected.  The days seemed to get slower and slower as I got bigger and bigger and more uncomfortable.  We went to Walden Pond to see the Fall leaves.  The highlight of the month was having my parents come out to visit and keep me occupied while we continued to wait for the baby.  We took lots of walks, did the Freedom Trail, ate my mom's yummy food, and trick-or-treated with our nephew Jack.  I also skipped a step going down the stairs and managed to put a big hole in the wall... how lucky that my daddy is a professional at fixing things.

November

FINALLY! Our little baby Miles was born 8 days late and 2 hours before my parents had to fly away back to Utah.  I'm so very happy they got to be here.  It was so important to me for him to meet his grandparents.  This month was spent mostly recovering and getting used to our new lives.  Wade's mom Kristy came out for a couple weeks and was so helpful.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at Jared and Susan's.

 

December

We hung out a lot together and stayed inside where it was warm.  Miles started smiling. We found out Miles is allergic to dairy and had an absolutely fabulous time figuring that out (psh!).  I also managed to leave the Christmas present I spent 2 months making for Wade's parents on the top of our car.  It was not a pretty sight when I found it 45 minutes later. We had our first Christmas with all 3 of us together.  We spent the day talking to family on the phone and playing with our new toys (band hero!). New Year's Eve was spent at Jared and Susan's apartment playing band hero, eating lots of bad food, and making fun of Jennifer Lopez's outfit on TV.

goodbye 2009!