Updating

Every time I get on the computer with the intention of updating my blog, I always spend way too much time checking everyone else's blogs and by the time I'm done with that it's either too late at night, or I'm just no longer in the mood to sit down and type an extensive post for my own blog. Today it's the latter. Maybe if I just started being better about updating more frequently, my updates wouldn't seem so arduous.

Ah well. Since I'm not in the mood for a long post, let me just write on here that, yes, we are still alive. I am still very pregnant and getting more so. We had a great Christmas and Thanksgiving, which, hopefully, I'll blog about before the year is over. I'm sure I've almost completely lost my readership since I never blog anymore. We still don't have a job and things are... well, coming full circle in that area. We'll just leave it at that for now. I'll explain when we know more. Cami is still adorably cute and has been climbing everywhere. Sterling is trying to teach me spanish. Trying being the operative word there. And that's really all that's happening at the Fenwick household. All in all, things are going well here. Thanks for asking. :)

One last random thought, have you ever noticed that in movies, almost nobody shuts the front door when they walk into the house. There will be five feet of snow outside and people just walk in without shutting the door. Ever. Also, did you notice that when people talk on the phone in movies, they never say 'goodbye', they just hang up. I notice both of those things a lot and, frankly, they annoy me. We watched "Julie and Julia" the other night and they did both of those things quite frequently. I think from now on I'll never tell people 'goodbye' on the phone. I'll just hang up randomly and leave them talking to themselves for a good five minutes before they realize that I'm no longer there. After all, that's how it's done in the movies, right?

Good excuse

So, for once I actually have a good excuse as to why I haven't blogged in almost a month. You ready? Here it is: our laptop is broken. See, our regular computer is upstairs in Cami's room and our laptop is usually downstairs by the couch and that's where I usually blog from. But, since it's broken, and the only time I find to blog is when Cami is napping, I can't do it because I'll wake her up. You see my problem here? But I figured that I should get back to it, since it has been so long, so brace yourself for a few pictures and a bunch of mindless rambling.

So, first things first. My sister mentioned on her blog what we're having (we got our 20 week ultrasound) so I figure it's time for us to make an official announcement:

It's a boy!!

We're super excited. I really wanted a boy and even had a dream the night before the ultrasound that it was a girl and I was SO upset in my dream, which of course made me feel really bad when I woke up. But it's a boy!! We got quite a good look at his 'out-door plumbing' unit (that's what the ultrasound tech called it. Made me laugh pretty hard), but for his sake, I won't post that. What I will post are some of the other pictures we got. He wasn't very cooperative and we never got a good profile picture, or a cute one of his feet or anything.

This first one is the best profile picture we could get. He had his arms up by his head the whole time and we even saw him sucking on his fingers. Too cute!


This second one is a profile with his mouth open. I've always thought that pictures like this make it look like you've got an alien growing inside you, but at least they're always cute when they come out.
So, there's our little man. I'm very, very excited for him to come. I think it'll be a blast to have one of each.

Random question: for those of you who have kids, what was their heart rate? Cami was always really high, about 170, and this little guy is down around 145. They say that's pretty normal, girls are high, boys are low. Did any of you notice that same sort of pattern?

I've been meaning to get a picture of my non-existent baby bump, but just haven't yet. I'll have to post comparison pictures of my pregnancy with Cami to this one, I really have almost no stomach, even halfway along. No, I'm not complaining to be so tiny, but for those of you who have been pregnant, you know that stage you go through where you've got a little bit of a bump but not much and people look at you and wonder "Ok, so is she pregnant or is she just fat?" And you make a point of telling everyone that you're pregnant, just so they'll stop wondering. Yeah, I've been there for the past three months! I'm okay with being tiny, but I guess what it just comes down to, psychologically at least, is that basically, I still just look fat. :(

Anyways, moving on. So, October, let's talk about that and we'll work backwards from there (to September and then maybe I'll be caught up after that). Beginning of October: My birthday!! I am now a quarter of a century old. Wow. For my birthday I got pajamas, new couches (there's a whole story that comes along with that, but we'll save that for September), an hour long relaxing massage, and earrings. I never got a picture of that cake, it was store bought, but it was a great day. Sterling took me out to dinner and then to a movie. Can't remember now what we watched, but we had fun.

Also, in October, Sterling's mom and his Aunt Ruth organized a barbeque up American Fork canyon. It's a tradition to do one every October. Last year I was there with a really bad kidney infection. Not fun. This year was better. We ended up taking a lot of family pictures, Preston, Sterling's brother, was our photographer. He's got a talent. I was prepared for it, so we weren't color coordinated at all, but here's some of the outtakes.

It was so pretty up there with all the fall colors and the river running right by everything. I was just gorgeous and the light was perfect for taking pictures. If only we'd had matching outfits.

Here's two of Cami and her cousin Beca, Preston and Alisha's little girl. She's three months younger than Cami and is the spitting image of her father. It's pretty funny actually.

Cami's 'deer in the headlights' look. It's pretty much her standard look when confronted with a camera.
For the rest of October we've just continued with our job hunt. We went out to Fountain Green, it has a population of about 900 people and you would walk from one end of the town to the other in about 20 minutes. It was small and sad and Sterling and I decided that we didn't want the job there, so the search continues. We have some promising things opening up in January, so we might just have to wait on something permanent until then. We'll see though.

Finally, Halloween. Um, we didn't do anything, and I mean anything for Halloween. We didn't even carve pumpkins this year. I know what you're thinking 'what a bunch of party-poopers. Yes, that would be us. We had some creative ideas for costumes for our little ward Halloween party, but nothing that could be pulled together quickly. I had big plans, but time flew by and suddenly the ward party was upon us! Sterling wanted to go as a duck hunter, with him in his waders and camo, me as a black lab hunting dog, and Cami as a duck. I thought it would be super cute, but we had very little time, and money with which to throw it together in time for the party.

Halloween evening, we escaped Orem and went up to Sterling's mom's place in Midvale. We never get trick-or-treaters anyways (not in the three years we've lived here), so we partied up there instead. She got a total of two. That's right, just two. We ended up watching some 'scary' movies on tv, namely Final Destination. Yeah, I didn't sleep that night. No it's not really super scary, but it did enough of a number on me that I've filled my thriller quota for the month.

So, that about sums up October, more to come later (hopefully sooner rather than later, but we'll see how it works out.)

News feed

I’m going to go through a bit of retro-blogging for the next couple posts, since, once again, I’ve failed to keep my goal of blogging more regularly. There’re no pictures with this post, I just wanted to do some quick news catch up. But, first things first, since I haven’t made any updates on my pregnancy situation, I’ll do that now.

I went in for my second ultrasound and everything is looking better. The bleed hasn’t fully absorbed yet, but it’s on its way, also, the ultrasound tech said I might have a minor case of placenta previa. For those of you who might not know: that’s where the placenta attaches over the opening of the cervix. It’s usually very bad because the placenta often detaches from the wall causing a miscarriage. However, in my situation, it’s only a partial and as the baby grows the placenta will move farther and farther away from the cervix. Whew! What a relief to know that everything will most likely be okay. Thanks for all of your prayers on our behalf. We appreciate them all! Still no determination on the gender; that will have to wait for the next ultrasound the first week of November. Getting closer all the time!

To move on, during the last month, Sterling and I have been a little worried about what we were going to do next. Sterling’s seasonal job with the Division of Natural Resources (DNR) was supposed to end on Sept 30. Fortunately his boss has let him extend work until Oct 22^nd. However, we were faced with the dilemma of no current job prospects once it ended. He had applied several places but nothing was happening as fast as we needed or wanted it to; then suddenly, this last week, things exploded!

He went in for a job interview with the Saratoga Springs Police Department as an Animal Control Officer and was told that he’s one of the top two candidates. Then, he got a call from the Idaho State Highway Patrol and they want him to come up for an interview on Oct 19^th. They want to hire him too. And then we get a call from the Division of Wildlife Services (I think that’s what they’re called) saying they want him to come in for an interview for a Fish Hatchery position down in Fountain Green, UT. (It’s just south of Nephi, off a random highway). So now we face the dilemma of which job to accept. Funny how things can flip so quickly on you. I’m not trying to sound ungrateful that so many great opportunities suddenly came our way, especially in this economy, but it’s just frustrating still. We’ve talking it over a million times, but are still not closer to a decision on what we’ll do yet.

So there’s a quick catch up on, pictures will be forth coming in following posts as I enter the retro-blogging stage yet again.

When life throws a curve ball

It's nice to have a glove and the ability to catch.

Ok, so maybe that's a silly metaphor, but we recently got thrown a curve ball. Fortunately everything turned out fine. Disclaimer right here: this is pregnancy talk, so guys (if there are any guys who read this), if that makes you uncomfortable, stop reading now.

I went running this morning and finished with an intense pain in my lower left stomach. I came home, put Cami down for a nap, and went to bed myself. I tried to do some yoga but didn't feel good at all. Several hours later I started bleeding. Pregnant women aren't suppose to bleed, so of course I got worried. The cramping continued, so when Sterling came home I called my doctor for an appointment.

As we sat waiting to go, I prepared myself for the worst. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, that sort of thing. It could be a miscarriage, that I knew. It could be an ectopic pregnancy, though I didn't feel like I was about to die, so probably not. However, it could be something simple. I mean, some women bleed throughout their pregnancy right? Krista (my sister) mentioned that a friend of hers bled every time she did physical activity. So it could be that, right?

Prepared for bad news, we went to see my doctor. She said she wasn't going to listen to heart tones because it's too early anyways and she didn't want to get us anxious before the inevitable ultrasound. We were told that yes, it could very well be a miscarriage, however, it could also be something else. There are two sacs around the baby, one around the other. It occasionally happens that the outer sac pulls away from the inner and fills with blood, then breaks open, which means bleeding. Simple, right?

The ultrasound tech was really busy, so we waited for quite awhile before we finally got in to see her. She set everything up, spread the cold gel on my stomach and went to work. She searched around for different things and we could see the little baby in there. So small and so sad, because we might have lost it. After a few minutes she pointed out where the bleeding was coming from and paused over the baby where we could hear it's heart beat. It took me several long seconds before it hit me. "So it isn't a miscarriage?" The tech looked at me as though I was really slow, which, let's face it, I am. "No, it's not a miscarriage. There's a heart beat." She was a little patronizing, but I figured I'd have to let it pass with this news. So, I didn't miscarry!! Great news all around, right?

But there's more. The bleeding was indeed from the two sacs separating and filling with blood. She said there was a rather large area, but that she had seen cases where it was this bad and it had resolved on it's own, which is good because there's nothing they can do to fix it. So hopefully it'll resolve on it's own, like she said. My doctor told me not to go running anymore, only light walking, no heavy lifting (anything heavier than Cami), and basically to just go home and keep my feet up. So for now we're in the clear, but things could turn south and we just need to be careful. I'm getting a follow up ultrasound in three weeks to see if it's resolved.

We got a little ultrasound picture of our little baby. The picture is really dark, but I'll try to scan it and post it tomorrow. It was so cute to see the little tiny features. Not that you can make out much when they're that tiny, but it was still fun. For now, we're doing okay. I still hurt, but things are looking up.

Fangs and a new arrival

So, I figure it's about time that I actually put a post on here that we're expecting again! I already put it on my facebook page, so most everyone knows, but for those of you who don't... well, we're having another baby!! I'm due on March 21st. We'll find out in November-ish what we're having. We're both hoping for a boy, but you never know. So far this pregnancy has been okay. I've had worse morning sickness than I did with the last one, though I haven't been throwing up uncontrollably, so that's a plus.

In other news, Cami has a whole bunch of teeth coming in. It's frustrating and exciting at the same time because of course she doesn't want to eat anything when they come in cuz it hurts. She's got four on the top and three on the bottom, but for the longest time she only had two on the top. But it wasn't the normal front two teeth like you'd expect. No, our child had fangs. Her two incisors (maybe they're the canines, we can't tell yet) came in long before the front ones did. She seriously looked like a little vampire for the longest time. And if you let her get hold of your finger any more, she'll stick in it her mouth and has nearly drawn blood a few times. It hurts. My best friend commented that we have our very own little Renesmee (for those of you who know Twilight), which just made me laugh and roll my eyes. I bet none of you knew that I married a vampire, did you?

I tried for the longest time to get a picture of her fangs. The only way she'll show them smiling is if you flip her upside down or make her laugh. If you try to pry her lips apart to see her teeth, she clamps them closed as tight as possible. But, we finally got it.

It's a little fuzzy, but you get the general idea. My own little vampire child. *sigh* Just what I always wanted.

It's been a busy few weeks

So it's high time I blog again. I've been busy, my family has been in town! It's been great to have them around. Lots has happened with them being here. We dropped Scott off at the MTC, David is back from his mission to Taiwan and is getting into his new apartment, two of my cousins, who I haven't seen in five years, came to town, we went swimming, on many different occasions, we remodeled one of the apartments we manage but didn't take any pictures of the before and after, my brother Ryan ALMOST finished Driver's Ed, with a few techincal difficulties, so he won't actually have his license until next summer, Sterling and the guys (my brothers, Travis, and his family) went paintballing and came back with some awesome bruises, we celebrated Cami's first birthday and her cousin, Kate's, third birthday and Sterling, Ryan, David, and I went out to Utah Lake on wave runners. There, that about sums it all up. Since I'm too lazy to upload a million pictures, I'm just going to put the ones on here of Cami's birthday. Sorry, this post is kinda crazy, my brain is gone.


Could I look any less enthused about the mess she's making of the cake, her clothes, and my clothes? No, I don't suppose I could. At least she had run, right?

She had more fun with the paper than she did with the actual presents, why am I not surprised?
Here's Cami with all her cousins. Kate and Brooklyn, my sister's kids, and Beca, Sterling's brother's daughter. I just had to post this one because of the look on Brooklyn's face. Too funny!!

Well, so there's the run down of our summer so far. It's been a blast. Nothing too big to report. They're all on their way home, with a few detours along the way. Ryan is still with us, we're taking him to the airport on Saturday where he'll fly to Colorado. All in all, it's been a lot of fun.

Cause for celebration!

A few things have happened recently that I haven't posted yet and I feel horrible about it. So, I'm going to do it now. Here we go:

April 6th was Sterling's 25th birthday! He's a quarter of a century old! Happy birthday honey! Sorry I didn't post anything for you sooner. We had cupcakes instead of a regular cake cuz they're easier to share. I finally managed to surprise him with a few of his gifts, he usually manages to find out what I'm going to get him well before I give it to him. He can't just let me surprise him, ever! But he's wonderful anyways. I love you honey.

On May 1st, my best friend Melony got married. She and I have known each other since our freshman year at BYU when we lived in DT (Deseret Towers - now torn down) across the hall from one another. She and James got married in the Draper Temple. I haven't gotten pictures of that yet, so this will have to do. Congrats you two and good luck in your new life together!

About a week later, my brother Scott got his mission call! He's going to the Taipei Taiwan Mission, Mandarin speaking. David, one of my other brothers, gets back from Kaohsiung, Taiwan in about a week. Wow, time really flies. Congrats Scott! We're all so excited for you!

And finally, my sister and her husband just (June 11) celebrated their fifth anniversary! Five years of wonderful marriage and two gorgeous little girls to show for it. I wish we were still moving out to Virginia. I was looking forward to living close to you. Maybe someday. I love you both!

It is bad enough when your friends call you fat, but when the government officially says your too fat, that just sucks!

This is Sterling by the way. I will now relate the story of the USMC OCS that I just experienced. While I might have simplified the details on the phone to save my sanity from telling the whole story over and over, here are the full details.

For the last year, Erika and I have been set on me joining the Marine Corps through their officer candidate program, and then I would go on to be a pilot. The last part of May, I went out to Virginia to start training. Needless to say for anyone who knows how the government works, training didn't start right away. When I got there, the game of 'hurry up and wait' started. We would be rushed around from place to place to get our gear, fill out form after form, go through my 3rd physical, and start marking our gear for the dreaded pick-up day when we would get our sergeant instructors and they would scream their heads off at us.

We arrived Thursday afternoon when this whole process started. Saturday night and into Sunday morning I got sick with chills, a fever, body aches, a cough, runny nose and sinus congestion. I went to the health clinic there on Sunday morning, and while I was tested for Swine flu upon my arrival to the base (my results were negative), they drew blood again to check if I had contracted the virus while I was there (there were already four people in quarantine with the virus). In addition to taking my blood, they gave me a bunch of medicine that made me drowsy and they gave me 1L of fluids with an IV.

Monday morning was the scheduled time for everyone to run the physical fitness test (PFT). To pass, you had to get 8 pull-ups, 70 crunches in 2 min, and run 3 miles in 24 min or less. This seemed to be no problem for me as I had been getting 19 pull-ups (out of a possible 20), 100 crunches (out of 100), and 21:30 (out of an 18 minute maximum score) on the run. These scores that I had been getting in Utah before I left gave me a score of 280 out of 300. However, because I was sick, I had to report back to the doctors during the time the PFT was scheduled. No problem, I could just make up the PFT on Tuesday morning with the rest of the guys that were in sick call with me. However, nothing is that simple in the Marines.

Throughout Monday, I had been told to stop taking my meds because they made me drowsy. My symptoms returned with a vengeance, so I was told to take them again and report back to sick call on Tuesday morning. It looked as though I would not be able to run the PFT, and I would be disqualified.

Now, back on Sunday night came the clincher, but let me back up one week. Before I left, I showed up to work out with the Captain that I had been training with for the last year. He told me that he was very mad at all the bureaucratic BS that had just taken place. Apparently, one of our top candidates who shipped out the week before I did was weighed in at 3 lbs over his weight and was at 20% body fat. If you are overweight in the Marines, you get a tape measure around your waist and then they subtract the circumference of your neck from your waist and that is a males % body fat. If you are more than 18% body fat, you are disqualified. This candidate was obviously over his limit, and even though he got a score of 297/300 on his PFT(almost no one gets that good), he was being sent home! Lucky for him, another kid in his same situation was the son of a senator and that senator told a general in the Marines to call up the colonel at OCS and straighten him out. So where does that leave me? First off, I was 69 inches (according to my military physical here in SLC), and 188 lbs (I needed to be at 186). My body fat was right at 18%. If I failed the weigh-in, I would need a score of at least what I was normally getting on the PFT to be considered to stay at OCS. The reason my captain and I were so upset was because none of this would have been a problem in the past - you could stay, you simply had to drop the weight by graduation. Nobody bothered to tell any of the candidates this new weight requirement early enough to do much about it, all thanks to the new Colonel that is over the candidates. Over the next week I barely ate anything hoping to drop the extra 2 pounds.

Now, back to Sunday night. I was being weighed in, and lo and behold, I was down to 185! I dropped three pounds - I was safe! But wait, what's that you say Mr Marine who does nothing but work out OCS candidates all day every day? I need to get taped? I didn't ask any questions because if anyone talked they were likely to be insulted and yelled at. Then I heard the problem as the guy taping me asked the first guy, "How tall is he?" "68 inches," came the reply, "he needs to be at 180 lbs!" When they taped me, I came in at 19% body fat and all because they measured me at 68 inches instead of 69. Great, so here I was, sick, I hadn't eaten much for the last week, and now I had to get an awesome PFT score to stay in the program.

Now, as I had explained before, I missed the Monday PFT, and now I had to miss the Tuesday PFT! I was sure I was going home. Then, a gunnery sergeant came up to me Tuesday afternoon and said, "Fenwick, go change into PT clothes, you have been cleared by medical, and are going to run your PFT in 40 min." By this time I was feeling ok, and I thought that maybe if I just do what I normally do, I could get my regular score and I could stay. I was, after all, 4500 feet lower in elevation and that fact alone was supposed to help my endurance by a lot.

When I showed up to take my PFT, I was feeling pretty good, but the weather was very hot and very humid. They normally try to do all physical training (PT) in the morning to avoid the hot and muggy Virginia weather, but no such luck for me this day. In fact, there were about 10 medics stationed around the area because they were expecting me (and about 4 other guys running with me) to pass out due to heat exhaustion! I went over to the pull-up bar and started out great, but then they said I couldn't move my legs at all, and I needed to dead-hang. I had not trained for this. I did as many as I could, but they didn't count a bunch because I moved my legs. I only got 9, not 19 like normal - I barely passed! Next, the crunches went fine, and I got 97, not as much as I would like, but pretty good. Next came the run. "This should help me make up on the pull ups, I could do this" were my thoughts as I approached the starting line. We started off, and everyone got out in front of me pretty quick, but I got into a good pace and went on my way. About a half mile into it, I passed everyone as they were starting to feel the effects of their speed in the beginning. This kept up for about 2 miles; I then heard my time, and I realized I wasn't going to make it under the 24 min mark. I kept going, but finished at 24:20. I didn't get a qualifying score.

After the PFT, I had to appear before the colonel and a few more officers that run the place. Despite being measured one inch shorter than normal and running a PFT in sub optimal conditions, I was disqualified from OCS. I later found out that there were too many applicants for the program and not enough money to pay them, so they were cutting applicants left and right for anything they could. Even if a guy had blood pressure of 140 or over, they were cut for high BP. Even the candidates that stayed and graduated would not be put on active duty after graduation. Instead, they would be put on stand-by for a few months, they would not be paid, and their family would not receive any benefits of any kind until they were moved to active duty.

This experience was only one thing in a long line of problems that I have been fighting through to get to OCS. At first, I thought they were just obstacles in front of me to overcome in order to reach a good thing. However, after talking it over with Erika, we feel that this was just something that we would be better off not doing and that we should move on. I am glad I tried, but kind of frustrated now. I have to start at ground zero and look for jobs and aim us in a good direction for our future. It kind of sucks not having something ahead of us in the foreseeable future. I have considered everything from taking the few remaining prerequisites at BYU and applying for medical school or PA school, working at getting a job with one of my professors and turning that work into a masters project and eventually a PhD, and even just applying for jobs in my field now and starting to pound out a career. I will let you know what we end up doing, but don't expect anything too solid right now. Thanks for reading, I know it was long, but there's a lot to the story.

Feeding time

The other night I was busy working on something on the computer, so I thought I'd let Cami feed herself some mashed up pasta in tomato sauce. Normally I'd just do it myself and use a spoon - something Cami doesn't seem to have mastered quite yet, but I was just feeling far too lazy that night. So, I stripped off her clothes and stuck her in her seat in nothing but her diaper. Here's the end results and my just desserts for my lethargy.

I cleaned her off with a washcloth as best I could, but ended up having to give her a bath anyways. When I took off her diaper, I saw she somehow managed to get food into there. Can any of you mothers out there please explain to me how that is possible? How does a little baby manage to get more food on the floor and in their seat and in their diaper than they get in their mouths? It just baffles me!

After she was done, I enlisted Sadie's help to manage the after effects of the explosion.

Don't worry, I did wash the tray after Sadie was done with it. It's so useful to have a dog around when something like this happens. It makes cleaning up so much easier afterwards. However, I wouldn't recommend getting a dog after you already have kids. We tried that with Buddy. Not a good idea. Get the dog before you have a baby, then you have the time and energy to train it.

So, I know I'm not the only mother out there with stories like this - Cami getting food deep inside her diaper instead of in her mouth - I'd love to hear your stories too. Feel free to share! It might make me feel better. :)

Rearranged

There's something truly satisfying about rearranging furniture. It just makes a room feel new again. It always makes me happy. Usually when I do this I'm on my own, huffing and puffing as I struggle to move large items (like the TV stand - not fun, or the mattresses - I've broken things trying to manhandle those). Fortunately for me, this time Sterling was around to help. He, somehow, managed to move our two ton piano from the wall where the little couch is now, to the other wall. I was very impressed. It's really heavy! We also had to rehang the pictures because they wouldn't fit where we had them before. We not have about a half dozen new holes in our walls.

I've enjoyed this set up because it makes it feel like we're in a new place - even if the kitchen, bedroom, and office are all exactly the same. The living room at least feels a little different and it's a great feeling!

A 'toothful' update

Pictures are still forth coming. I planned on doing a comparison between the temporaries and the porcelain veneers. It's quite drastic. However, there's a little problem. I went in today to get the porcelain veneers put on, but one of them didn't fit right. Why does there always having to be one?! I was a little disappointed. So, that one is still a temporary, but the rest are the real deal. I love them! We were initially hoping that I would be able to get in next week to get the last real one in place, but the ceramicist isn't going to have it done by then, and then that week Dr. Hillam (my dentist) is going on tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He plays trumpet (?) in the orchestra. So, I won't get the last porcelain veneer on until July 1st and frankly, I don't want to wait that long to show off my new teeth, so here's a picture of the temps. I might post a picture of my almost-all porcelains soon.
Ok, so maybe you won't be able to see a real big different between the temps and permanent ones, at least not on film. But there really is a huge difference if you get up close and personal.

So, the story behind it: When I went in to get my temps done initially, I was in the dentist chair for a straight 8 1/2 hours!! I got one bathroom break and, obviously couldn't eat anything the whole time. They drilled away the top ten teeth, taking off about a millimeter all around them. Thankfully they numbed me up real good for it. My mouth was seriously stretched out and afterwards, with the temps on, it felt like my whole upper jaw was in a vise. It hurt for probably three days straight. Hello pain killers! The upside was that I got happy gas for those 8+ hours. It's wonderful stuff.

I went back in today - just when I'd started getting used to the feel of the temps and managed to get rid of the little lisp I had acquired due to larger, longer teeth than I had before. The lisp was charming, really. Saying 's's, 'v's, and 'f's all made me sound a little serpent-like. I'm glad to be rid of it. The porcelain veneers are not nearly as bulky as the temps were, with the exception of my left canine which is still huge. Again I got numbed up, thankfully, who knew it would hurt to just put a cap on, they didn't even do drilling today like they did last time. They forgot the happy gas though, thankfully I was only there for 5 1/2 hours this time around. Still a long time, yes, but not unbearable.

So, the next time you go to the dentist for a check-up or even just getting a little cavity filled, think of me as you're sitting in that dental chair and STOP COMPLAINING! ;) Just be thankful that you won't be there for 5 hours.

Why Sadie loves Cami

Nuff said....

Sorry, I know I'm not the best videographer. You make due with the talents you have, I suppose. Other times, when Sadie licked her hand, she started giggling, but you couldn't hear it from where I sat. Sterling made the remark the other day that he didn't know how other people feed their children when they don't have a dog to clean up the messes on the floor. I have to agree, especially with carpet underneath. However, you've just seen the downside to having a dog. They're a distraction.

Rewind...

Alright, let's rewind a couple of months: it's time for the dreaded recap. I need to be better about posting and then I won't have to do a recap all the time, since I don't like it. Hopefully I'll improve soon. Ok, so starting backwards and working my way forward, here we go:

Sterling finally graduated!! Hooray! He paid his due of four long years and he's finally done! He's really excited to be done with school, he was suffering from senioritis really badly.
Ok, so he didn't actually walk, the picture of him in the cap and gown is actually from back when I graduated, we found an extra one in his size and decided to take some pictures because even back then (two years ago) he still hadn't been planning on going to his graduation at all, so we thought we'd be sneaky and still get pictures for posterity.

While Sterling was in his last semester of school, I was also taking some classes. I took a RAD class (stands for Rape Aggression Defense) that's only for women. SO much fun!! Basically you go there and you learn how to beat the crap out of guys if anyone ever tries to abduct/rape you or anything like that. It's done by the police officers on campus. If any of you who go to BYU have ever seen any of them, you'll know that many of them are big scary guys. It's not very easy going up against them in full body suits. I don't have any pictures from class, but here's a picture of what they look like in their huge suits when we do the final simulation, the other is the measly amount of protection they give you. In the final simulation they actually attack you and you have to get away from them. Because they're so padded up, you're actually kicking, punching, head-butting, and elbowing them as hard as you possible can. It was quite the adrenaline rush, but it was such a blast! They filmed it and we got to watch the tape back right after. I took the basic class and the advanced class. The basic class is just how to get away from them, the advanced class teaches you moves where you could potentially kill your attacker. Rather scary, I know. It also teaches you how to react if they get you on the ground or if they have a gun or a knife. In the final simulation for the advanced class, one officer had a knife to my neck and when I got away from him I actually twisted his shoulder really badly and he had to file a worker's compensation form and had to wear a sling for awhile. I felt bad, but it's nice to know it actually really works.

The other class I did I haven't been able to find pictures for. I was a teacher's assistant for an Emergency Medical Technician class on BYU campus. It was a lot of fun. There were 30 students in the class and we had a great time! I enjoyed being able to help teach, even if I didn't always know all the answers. Sometime I'll try to get pictures and post some of them.

We got a new baby backpack for Cami, so we thought we'd make use of it and hike Squaw Peak the week before our anniversary (May 9). I had no idea how out of shape I was until we did that. I felt like I was going to die. My excuse is that I had a baby awhile ago, it really wears down your body in ways you don't know until you try something like this. We got passed by a whole bunch of little kids and they were just plugging along as though they were walking on flat ground. I really took a blow to my self-esteem there, especially since Sterling looked just as spry as always once we reached the top. In the past when I've hiked the peak, it's been about a three hour round trip. This time, it took us three hours just to get to the top. It was about a five hour round trip total. Pathetic. Cami seemed to enjoy it though, even if she did sleep through most of it.
For mother's day/our anniversary (Sterling gets off easy because they're usually within a few days of each other) we left Cami with her Grandma Joyce for several days and went up to Zermatt Resort and Spa in Midway, UT. It was so pretty up there. My parents own a villa there, so we get to stay for almost free (besides room cleaning fees). On the morning of our anniversary, I woke up to find this: Sterling didn't have time to write anything in the card because I got up too soon. He was cute because he told me that he was going to go to the gym in the morning and probably wouldn't be there when I got up, instead he was out getting flowers. So cute. The flowers were so pretty. We also went horseback riding while up there (I forgot to bring the camera so I don't have any pictures) and went swimming in the pool at the hotel. Between Squaw peak and horseback riding, I couldn't walk (or sit) for about a week. But it was all so much fun!

The second to last week in May, we went down to Lytle (Lie-tle) Ranch in St. George with Sterling's brother Preston, his wife, Alisha, their little girl Rabeca and their German Shepherd Abby. We brought Cami with us this time, as well as Sadie, our dog. The ranch is owned by BYU and is a literal oasis out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It's gorgeous down there. Mostly we just sat around and enjoyed the 92 degree weather (well, I enjoyed it) Sterling and I went bird watching and we found a nasty, crawdad filled pond to go swimming in. Preston actually got his toes pinched by the crawdads; note to self: don't stand on the bottom of the pond. Because the temperatures were so high, the water felt heavenly!
Phew! Now that that's done and I'm caught up, I can make a greater effort from now on. I've got some cute pictures and videos of Cami I'll post later as well as news about Sterling, but I'll have to wait until I have the whole story before posting that.

The cutest commercial I have EVER seen

My mom sent me this via email and I absolutely loved it!!! I just wanted to share because I thought it was just so sweet.

Oral Surgery

Well, it's finally going to happen! I'm getting oral surgery done on Thursday! Yes, I realize that's not normally something to get excited about. But in my case, it'll be great!!! This coming Thursday at 8AM I am going in to get veneers!! I'm so excited!! I thought about posting a before and after picture but vetoed the idea because I really don't like my teeth (hence why I'm getting veneers). For those of you who don't know what they are, veneers are a porcelain cap for your teeth. It simultaneously whitens teeth and straitens them, enlarges or shrinks them all at once. Many people get them who have less than perfect smiles. The dentist will shave off about 1 mm from the front of each tooth and then seal the porcelain cap on top of it. They're doing at least the top 8, maybe 10 teeth. It'll be nice to have a pretty, white smile for once in my life. I'm maybe just a little nervous about them actually shaving off my teeth, something that will be completely irreversible, but I've always been a little self-conscious about my smile, so I think it'll be worth it. This Thursday they'll actually just be putting on a plastic covering while the sculptor is making my porcelain veneers. I'll post pictures once I get it done and later, once I have the porcelain caps, I'll post comparison pictures as well. I'm super excited and will be sure to keep updates on here.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all those mothers out there!!! I've found (and I'm sure everyone who's been a mother longer than I have knows this already) that being a mother is usually a very thankless job. But it's so fun!!! It's nice that there's a day set aside for everyone to stop and really thank their mother. So I wanted to say a huge

THANK YOU MOM!!!

to my own mother. I love you so much and I'm coming to appreciate everything you've done for me more and more; especially now that I'm a mother myself. I wonder, quite often actually, why in the world you ever put up with anything from me!!! Cami is a dear, but there's just sometimes that I want to scream! And she can't even walk or climb yet!! Thank you for putting up with me, demon child that I was. I'll be forever grateful. I love you.

On another note, I've been meaning to update my blog recently, but at first I just wasn't in the mood and now I just don't want to because it means playing catch up and you all know how much you hate it. I've lamented about it before, so I won't go into it again. I'll try to get to it soon. For any of you who care, stay tuned, I'll post something interesting eventually.

I thought this was funny

So, looking at demotivators tonight with my brother, I found this one and thought that it described our blog incredibly well. I promise I'm not actually a pessimist. I just thought it was a good one.


Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.

On another note, looking at other people's blogs, I've decided that I need to take more pictures. So, hopefully in the near future I'll have more pictures to post and hopefully interesting tales to tell along with them. We'll see how long that lasts.

I'll huff, and I'll puff....

She's only 8 months old, but Cami already knows what she does and doesn't like. When she gets upset, she makes this face that I've named "her mad face". I know, very original, but just wait til you see it, it's hilarious! I've tried to keep track of things that make her mad. Some of them include:

1) Not getting fed when she wants to
2) Getting fed something other than fruit (I've spoiled her with sweet foods and not enough vegetables)
3) When she doesn't get picked up after having crawled all the way over to us
4) Having her face cleaned after eating
5) Not being allowed to play with the tupperware
6) Going down for naps

Those are just a few to start with. So, when she does get mad, she makes this face that lets you know right out that she's not happy with you. She doesn't always cry or whine, but she gives you her mad face and you just know you're in trouble.

Virginia, here we come!

It's official! We're moving to Virginia in August. Sterling heard back from the Marines at the end of January that he has been accepted as a pilot candidate in the Marines. He's still super excited. In April they'll fly him out to Florida for his final flight physical and if all goes well there, he'll leave May 30th for Quantico, VA. Officer Candidate School (OCS) is supposedly one of the most difficult things he'll ever do in his entire life. At least that's what we've heard. Personally, I think that would kinda turn me off to wanting to do it, but he still seems excited.

For anyone who's interested, here's a website with some pictures of what it'll be like. I have no idea if he'll be in the Charlie or Delta Company. We think it just depends on when he gets there. Here's the website: http://www.ocs.usmc.mil/CandidateInformation/Fall2008.asp

The first week of August I'll be flying out to Virginia for Sterling's commissioning. I'm excited for that. We'll also spend some time looking around for an apartment and take a detour up to New York to see some plays on Broadway. All in all, it's going to be a great little trip and we're both happy about what's going to happen next.

Frozen vs. canned

My family grew up with frozen vegetables: peas, green beans, corn, broccoli, etc. Sterling grew up with canned foods: corn and beans and the like. I'm trying my hardest to convert him to the world of frozen veggies and now that Cami is eating solid foods, I'm trying to work on her too. I thought the green beans and the peas she ate smelled and tasted (yes, I tried them) like the canned version. I nearly gagged feeding them to her, but she seemed to do ok after the initial surprise wore off. So I figured I'd cook some frozen peas and mash them up and see if she like them better. Sadly, our daughter seems to take after her father. It's a sad day in history for frozen veggies.

Cami's milestones

The last time I wrote about Cami I was raving about how she can roll over and push herself up. Hooray! She's come quite a long way since then.

Things she's done:

Roll to get where she wants (she got caught pulling papers off the coffee table, it's her specialty)



Push herself up to her knees and rock back and forth



Eating solid food (her first taste of peas was not pleasant)



Takes baths in the tub (she's still not sure what to think)



Army crawling (she loves chewing on shoes for some reason)



A few others (that I don't have pictures or videos of) are: Move to sitting from her knees. She can crawl for real - as in on her knees. She is just starting to pull herself up to standing. She did it in her crib the other day, scared me because I hadn't lowered her crib at that point and she could have toppled out.

Her most recent achievement is climbing up on furniture, namely under the coffee table to get to books, paper, anything she can chew on.