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.